It’s rare when The Daily Mail (UK) focuses on the internal workings of a US City but a recent story concerns Seattle’s plan to use illegal migrants to bolster its depleted police force.
It’s encouraged via a law signed by Democrat Governor Jay Inslee in February that those who speak more than one language can be chosen above an equally qualified candidate.
The legislation took effect, June 6.
And the The US Justice Department now lets DACA recipients have firearms and ammunition as part of their official law enforcement officer duties.
Meanwhile, former Lieutenant Jessica Taylor, who resigned after almost a quarter of a century, sent a letter to Police Chief Adrian Diaz, saying “Your controlling, bullying, and gaslighting tendencies have wreaked havoc on this department, driving away talented and dedicated officers,
“On May 29, Diaz resigned amid charges of sexual harassment and racial discrimination. He was later to “come out” as a gay man.
DACA police are also being hired in California and Chicago.
DACA recipients are also considering allowing the DACA recipients to become county deputies, fish and wildlife officers, and Seattle firefighters.
In April, Seattle’s KTTH am station, had a report, from Jason Rantz, that alleged that the police were at a staffing level not seen in almost 70 years.
It can be considered the fox guarding the en house never seemed so apt.
This has yet to be discussed by either Delaware County Council of Philadelphis there may soon be a market for the newly formed SSL (Spanish as a second language) classes. At least certain phrases in Spanish such as as “I have an alibi”, “it was my identical twin” or “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it”.
Constitution Party Nominees Don’t Make It Easy To Keep A Promise
By Bob Small
For the many years that we were involved trying to get nomination petition signatures, we fought the Democratic party challenges to our Green Party candidates. Many of us also joined with The Constitution and Libertarian Parties in their challenges, either in Harrisburg or Philly.
PaBac Ballot Access Coalition was the result of this cooperation. Our unspoken promise, also, was, that if our particular party did not get on the ballot, we would vote for either of the other two Parties who were on the ballot, no matter the candidate. Some years, it’s a big ask.
The Constitution Party of Pennsylvania declares itself to be predicated on the following three documents; The Bill of Rights, The Constitution of the United State, and The Declaration of Independence, which we all support. Some of us might question some of their affiliated groups, such as the John Birch Society and the Oath Keepers. However this also applies to the Greens and Libertarians.
On their website they quote Dwight D. Eisenhower: Every step we take toward making the state the caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the state our masters.
The Constitution Party is divided into six regions with Troy Bowman representsing the Southeast Region.
In 2024, they chose Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, as their presidential candidate . He has a lengthy arrest record for both violent and non-violent protests.
Operation Rescue’s motto was “If you believe abortion is murder, then you must act like it is murder” — implying that violence against abortion providers and staff was justified.
This is rather like a later day John Brown trying to bring people to Harper’s Ferry. That said, one has to admire his consistency, if not agree with all his tactics.
Randall Terry has a masters degree in Foreign Relations and Islamic Studies
The Vice-presidential Candidate is Afro-American Pastor Stephen Broden of Texas. He has a Masters of Arts in Communication from Michigan and a Masters of Arts in Bible Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a fervent Pro-Life advocate.
Maybe the Green Party will get their candidate on the ballot this year.
Constitution Party Nominees Don’t Make It Easy To Keep A Promise
While we can support equal — albeit not extraordinary — rights for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual, and for Transsexuals and their right to have public events, we also support Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian groups having a public presence. The problem comes when, as has recently happened, one group invades the other’s space.
On Sunday, June 2, the annual Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade was well on its way when all heck broke loose. The specific group, (I am not making this up) is Queers for Palestine which is a definition of the word oxymoron.
One of the quoted but unnamed protesters said “pride celebrations have merely become a public relations instrument used by the state to divert public attention away from the configuration of violent, repressive policies and practices inflicted upon queer bodies worldwide”.
Another commentator said “The alliance was always an odd one because of rampant homophobia and violence towards LGBTQ residents of Gaza prior to the terror attacks on Israel.”
It wasn’t just Philly. Conflict happened in Boston, New York City and others others.
The first Gay Pride parade was in New York in 1970, not in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, in Israel,10,000 persons marched in Jerusalem’s annual Pride and Tolerance March, one third of last year’s total.
Netanel Shaler, executive director at Havruta, a military reservist was “on a special leave to participate.” Havruta is an LGBTQ group for those “with a religious leaning”.
According to Queer in the World Homosexual relations were legalized in Israel in 1988,” along with further measures.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, There still are laws, from the British Mandate time, forbidding any consensual homosexual acts”
Finally we end up with Mark Segal, (The Philadelphia Gay News), whom I’ve known for only 50 years, around poetry readings, protests, etc. Don’t allow anyone to stop your Pride for their agenda “YOU WILL NOT TAKE OUR PRIDE AWAY. “ He ends by saying about the disrupters “ Many in our community know about bullies. They now know what you are. “
If Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Committee on the Judiciary’s ranking member, can’t properly explain the vetting process for illegal immigrants to a national television audience, then the border morass will deepen. Talking about the eight recently apprehended Tajikistan nationals with ISIS ties, Graham faulted immigration enforcement agencies for catching and releasing first, and then vetting. Graham is, to use the day’s popular phrase, “spreading disinformation!” More precisely, Graham is flat out wrong; meaningful vetting occurs only rarely after the illegal aliens have surged the border. Presenting a drivers’ license or a passport from a faraway country as part of a brief interview with an immigration officer is not vetting.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, working in tandem with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, apprehended eight Tajikistan nationals linked to ISIS. The arrests occurred in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Seven Tajikistani nationals crossed the U.S. border with Mexico illegally, but one used the CBP One app, which the Biden administration created without congressional approval to allow illegal aliens to book asylum claim appointments. Neither Customs and Border Protection nor Department of Homeland Security screening uncovered suspicious background information. The potential terrorists, immigration officials assured the public after the fact, were “fully vetted.”
As one news story described a Tajiki who enter illegally through San Diego, he “…had crossed the border, was vetted by agents, then allowed into the country with a court date last year, according to sources.” Mohammad Kharwin, a foreign national who is also on a federal terrorist watchlist because of his associations with Afghan-based terrorist organization Hezb-e-Islami, was released from ICE custody into the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program on March 12, 2023. He was initially arrested just two days prior in San Ysidro, California, after having illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the terms of his release, Kharwin was able to apply for work authorization and fly within the U.S. with no restrictions on his movements, under the sole condition that he was to periodically report to an ICE official over the phone. A year later, ICE arrested Kharwin in San Antonio, Texas after the FBI provided information that confirmed his membership in Hezb-e-Islami.
Vetting Tajikistanis and other illegal immigrants as they cross the border is impossible. Agents can only check crime and terrorism databases from allies willing to share information. That excludes most of the hundreds of countries from which the current surge is arriving. The greater the border crisis gets, the looser background checks become. At Jacumba, CA, Chinese nationals present a piece of white paper, a symbol of dissent against the country’s totalitarian government. The flimsy sheet of paper often serves as ID and allows the bearer to be released into the interior and eventually get an immigration court appointment. Illegal aliens’ movements between their release and their years-away eventual court date is anyone’s guess.
China is U.S.’s number one enemy. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayoras, however, could not be more welcoming. Mayorkas instructed CBP officials to radically reduce the number of interview questions for apprehended Chinese illegal aliens from roughly 40 to just five. In April, the House Committee on Homeland Security released its “Starting Stats” fact sheet which found that in FY24, 24,376 Chinese nationals had been caught illegally crossing the Southwest border. Encounters of Chinese nationals in March 2024 increased over 8,000 percent compared to March 2021, and have surpassed last year’s fiscal total––just six months into FY24. March also showed a historic high for encounters along the busiest sector of the northern border, the Swanton Sector, which saw a 50 percent increase compared to the previous March, and more than a 2,000-percent increase compared to March of FY21. More than 1,000 Chinese nationals have crossed the northern border every month for the past five months, a statistic that should but does not alarm the White House.
Immigration vetting means assuring that each unknown migrant isn’t a confirmed terrorist and doesn’t have a criminal record, contagious disease, or prior immigration violations. In-depth vetting is important, since those currently being released are mostly young and will be living in U.S. for decades. CBP agents can only check crime and terrorism databases from the U.S. or some allies. Mayorkas’ DHS’ hands-off approach to processing illegal aliens is a far cry from how meaningful vetting is done. Vetting, properly carried out, involves multiple federal agencies conducting meticulous security screenings which include biographic and identity investigations as well as FBI biometric fingerprint and photographic collection. Medical screenings are mandatory. The National Counterterrorism Center/Intelligence Community and the FBI do final evaluations. From start to finish, a full vetting can take a year or more.
During the Afghan withdrawal, the White House gave repeated assurances that those boarding flights to the U.S. either had been or would be, upon landing, fully vetted. Months later, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mayorkas admitted that “We are not conducting in-person, full refugee interviews of 100 percent” of Afghan evacuees. Biden issued a presidential directive ordering ground personnel to fill up the planes out of Afghanistan without vetting.
On homeland safety issues, Biden and his chief lieutenant Mayorkas have no credibility. With 10 million illegal aliens roaming around who knows where, the odds favor that America will suffer the consequences of the White House’s betrayal.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@isfpp.org
Swarthmore Lawnmower Ban Proposal Causes Break-Out In Democracy
By Bob Small
We’re not used to an outbreak of democracy in on- party Swarthmore, Pa. but it seems to be happening. There was tremendous opposition to the condo monstrosity at 110 Park Ave., now in the process of being built.
So on Monday night, June 10, when there was an overflow crowd at the Swarthmore Council legislative meeting, there was a bit of electricity in the air. Mostly everyone was there to comment on the proposed vote on ordinance 05-2024 CPOME which would ban combustion-powered outdoor maintenance equipment (CPOME ). Battery-powered and electric devices are allowable.
Twenty-five citizens commented on the ordinance with 60 percent against, and half of those for it demanding modifications. The British Parliament’s description of this would have been “a dog’s breakfast”.
Three of the anti-speakers were especially persuasive.
Rob M. Jordan, who chairs the Swarthmore Republican Committee, called this an ill-conceived “elitist and dictatorial policy.” He said that when this was first proposed last winter and Borough Manager Bill Webb was asked “how many complaints have come into his desk over two years about outdoor lawn equipment smell or noise he held up less than five fingers.
He add this is a “poorly drafted, unworkable resolution that is full of virtue signaling, but extremely short on quantifiable health output and beneficial effects to residents.” He facetiously, we think, said that Swarthmore might earn the title “Communist Borough of Swarthmore”.
Independent Democrat Neil Young said “The original proposed ban on yard equipment—lawnmowers, snow throwers, and more—was thankfully halted last month. But the legislation being forced through against significant public opposition remains impractical, unnecessary, and unworkable “ He added “the proposed ban is a textbook case of poor governance”.
Matt Tirpak, long-time owner of Swarthmore’s two-decade old TLC Landscape Service explained how the new law would cause his expenses to rise which would cause his charges to increase.
The room was still packed when David Boonin, who chairs the Environment Committee, declared the ordinance will be tabled.
Council’s next meeting is Monday, July 8.
The Environment Committee meeting, where this may be on the agenda, is 7 p.m., June 24. Boonin asked that Swarthmore residents with opinions on it to contact him at dboonin@swarthmorepa.org
Swarthmore Lawnmower Ban Causes Break-Out In Democracy
Canada faces an immigration crisis on multiple levels. Years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s endorsed over-immigration into Canada have pushed housing prices into the stratosphere, sent per capita income into a tailspin, and precipitated a brain-drain to the U.S. While skilled or semi-skilled Canadians are headed south, the millions of illegal aliens who have entered the U.S. in the last three years will head north should Donald Trump win the 2024 election.
By lowering its immigration standards, Canada created insurmountable obstacles. Foreign nationals arriving on student visas are the biggest driver of Canada’s dramatic population growth. Student visa holders, many of whom obtain diplomas from uncredited schools, are eligible for a Canadian green card within 3 years; at the fourth year they can apply for citizenship assuming they have met permanent residency requirements. In 2022, Indian students, mostly Punjab, made up 54% of Canada’s international student population. Recently, Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, announced policies that include a cap on study permit applications, stricter eligibility criteria for the post-graduation work permits, and limited access to open work permits for international students’ spouses, the equivalent to the U.S.’ H-4 visa. The government’s awakening is too little too late; Canada’s current population is 42 million, with immigration the biggest contributor. From 2016 to 2021, Canada’s population grew at almost twice the pace of every other G7 country. While growth slowed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it rose again in 2021 and, from January to March 2022, it was the highest of all first quarters since 1990.
Canada is bracing for a much larger immigration-fueled population spike. Official Statistics Canada, a government agency, projected in 2022 that “the Canadian population would reach 47.7 million in 2041, and 25.0 million of them would be immigrants or children of immigrants born in Canada, accounting for 52.4% of the total population…Canada’s population may reach…between 44.9 million and 74.0 million in 2068, according to the various projection scenarios.”
Over-immigration has created a Canadian housing affordability crisis. Demand for housing far outstrips supply. An exposé published by The Canadian Press revealed that federal public employees warned government officials two years ago that large increases to immigration could negatively affect housing affordability and services. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request showed that, as it prepared its immigration targets for 2023-2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada analyzed but ignored the potential consequences immigration would have on the economy, housing and services. Canada’s population increased by more than 430,000 during the third quarter of 2023, marking the fastest pace of population growth in any quarter since 1957. Mikal Skuterud, a University of Waterloo economics professor who specializes in immigration policy, said the federal government appears to have “lost control” of temporary migration flows, a reference to the student visa holders and migrant workers influx. Immigrant-driven population growth has a direct effect on housing. A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report that focused on housing shortages concluded that “by 2023 over 22 million units will be required to achieve affordability for everyone living in Canada.” The national benchmark home price, which measures the price of a so-called typical home, was $735,900 in April 2024, a 0.8% monthly increase. In British Columbia, the benchmark price is a staggering $985,000.
Unchecked immigration and the fallout that followed in terms of increased housing prices and decreased per capita income has sent native-born and immigrants to Canada fleeing to the U.S. In 2022, a record 126,340 moved to the U.S., a 70% increase from 2012.While workers are leaving Canada in droves, former U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman told a national security conference on June 3 that if Trump wins in November, “These people [U.S. illegal immigrants] aren’t just going to sit there and wait to be rounded up.” Should Trump win, Heyman said, they will immediately begin making plans to leave, and they will not go south, but north.
Like their U.S. expansionists’ soulmates, Canadian advocates like to parrot that more immigration lifts GDP, true but deceptive, and not the major factor in quality of life. More immigrants—more people—automatically creates a larger economy but depresses per capita income. If population growth drove economic growth, then countries like Canada and Australia that have among the highest rates of immigration and resulting population growth should vastly outpace a country like Japan, which has relatively little immigration and whose population actually declined over the last decade. Canada’s GDP per capita has fallen 0.4 per cent a year since 2020, the worst rate among 50 developed economies.
Immigration has been Canada’s downfall and proves how foolish and wrong Congress’ immigration cabal consistently is. In July 2021, the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship met. Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) wailed that the U.S. urgently needs to overhaul its “failed” immigration laws or risk losing “highly skilled” employees to Canada. Countering, Ranking Member Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), more rationally said: “Canada’s pre-pandemic GDP growth was 39 percent lower than the United States; their unemployment rate 60 percent higher; and their average wages 38 percent lower.” Lofgren embarrassingly and, as an immigration lawyer, purposely tried to mislead the public. Today, three years later, Canadians flock to the U.S. where, to their disappointment, they will find widespread IT layoffs. In April alone, 50 organizations including Google, Microsoft, and Tesla laid off 21,473 tech workers.
The harsh, inescapable truth is that too much immigration—the excesses plaguing the U.S. and Canada— hurts the native-born economically and societally. becomes unaffordable, socials services are strained, education diluted, and jobs lost. In U.S. pre-election polling, immigration consistently ranks as voters’ major issue; in Canada, 63% think immigration negatively effects housing. Even though sovereign Canada and America are crushed under its burden, nothing stops both governments’ insatiable quest for more immigration.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
We received an email, June 4, from the Reform Party of the United States that they had joined other “alternative” parties in nominating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as their presidential candidate.
The Reform Party was formed by Ross Perot in 1995. In 2004 they nominated Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan in 2000.
Kennedy’s nomination by the Reform Party allows his campaign to raise “up to $48,000 per donor in Florida, six times as much as he could raise as in independent candidate.”
Kennedy cited the Reform Party’s motto, “it’s time to put people first”.
Other alternative parties that have nominated RFK, Jr. include California’s American Independent Party and Michigan’s Natural Law Party.
The Reform Party website has 15 separate items on their platform, many of which are worth reading They also state “It’s time to end the two-party system and return to government for the people”.
If only.
Kennedy has already gained ballot access in seven states; California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.
According to his campaign, they have sufficient signatures, to be on nine other states, barring the inevitable challenges. These are Iowa, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio. He’s already on the ballot in two of the “swing states”,
Michigan and Nevada. Pennsylvania has a deadline of Aug. 1 but, as they always say “All dates in this calendar are subject to change without notice.”
RFKJ says that Biden is worse for Democracy than Trump.
He also says Biden is spoiler for his campaign and calls for him to drop out.
We should add that there are now even RFK, Jr commercials on cable TV which we find truly amazing.
There is also a UK Reform Party, they way. , ReformUK, is a pro-Brexit, anti Covid-19 lockdown party whose most famous candidate, and leader, is one Nigel Farage, who will be standing for Parliament on their next general election, on July 4th, a date one would think the British would rather not remember.
Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone) has been around for a longggg longggg time. See Madonna’s 50 Greatest Songs.
She’s still touring at age 65.
The last (free) stop on her “Celebration” tour, was not a cause for celebration for many conservative Christians who felt the “licentious” concert on Rio De Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, on May 4, caused the devastating floods in Rio Grande de Sul.
Another Christian influencer pointed out that Rio Grande do Sul is one of the states with the highest number of centers of Umbanda and Candomblé, which are African Brazilian religions associated by many evangelical Christians with the devil,
So these faithful types, who believe in the almighty power of God, are ascribing equal power to Madonna? Are you hearing yourselves?
Meanwhile, Justen Lipeles attended Madonna’s March 7 Concert then filed a class action suit due to, among other things, “intentional infliction of emotional distress” , “pornography without warning” and “topless women on stage stimulating sex acts”.
While looking up Billy Graham, we discovered that in the 1953 Chattanooga Crusade he personally tore down the dividing ropes between the races, even though the head usher had insisted on segregation. This was two years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Would we consider this “woke” today and do we need to reconsider previous historical determinations?
In a high stakes gamble with Americans’ safety and security at risk, President Joe Biden is rolling the dice again. Capitol Hill insiders confirm that the administration is considering providing refugee status to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip via mass parole, an immigration authority the president has abused since he entered the White House. The Immigration and Nationality Act requires that parole status be granted only on a temporary, case-by-case basis to satisfy a compelling, urgent humanitarian need. In blatant violation of the INA, Biden has doled out parole en bloc to millions of illegal immigrants.
The Biden administration has amassed a long list of illegal, unconstitutional immigration crimes that endanger the public. Top among them is his red-carpet welcome to an unknown total of millions—perhaps ten million or more—of unvetted illegal aliens whose backgrounds and intentions are unknown. Municipalities have struggled to provide shelter, health care, education and other affirmative benefits to illegally present foreign nationals. So far, Biden has luckily avoided a terrorist attack, but his good fortune is running out. During FY 2023, 736 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended at either the northern or southern border. The gotaways, an estimated 1.6 million over a three year period, doubtlessly include dozens more terrorists.
The nation now knows that at least one likely active terrorist, a Jordanian national who crossed the California/Mexico border illegally in May, recently breached Virginia’s Marine Corp Base Quantico in a box truck. Accompanied by another Jordanian national whose F-1 student visa expired in May, another immigration crime that converts his temporary visa status to illegal immigrant, the pair claimed that they were Amazon subcontractors making a delivery. Amazon had no knowledge of the Jordanians as employees or subcontractors. DHS refuses to release the Jordanians names; the FBI and ICE are mum. But Dave Katz, a former DEA agent and federal firearms instructor at Quantico, warned that the box truck incident was likely “a dry run for driving a box truck that was not going to be empty the second time.” Katz called the failed attempt the Jordanians “equivalent of a feasibility study.”
The Jordanians are not DHS’s only national security concern. In North Carolina, two non-English speaking, illegal alien Chechen men were caught trespassing past sunset outside a U.S. Army Special Operations Command officer’s home. The men had cell phones with Russian language contacts. One, Ramzan Daraev, claimed to work as a subcontractor for Utilities One, but had neither electrical equipment nor identification. Utilities One is a foreign-registered New Jersey-based company founded in 2016 by a young Moldovan CEO three years after he moved to the U.S.
When confronted near a power line in a wooded part of the property, an altercation ensued, and the Army officer shot and killed Daraev. Authorities questioned the second Chechen, Dzhankutov Adsalan and, despite being illegally present in the U.S., released him. The violated Special Op’s family told news outlets that the Chechens were photographing their children. To call the Quantico and North Carolina incidents suspicious, threatening and a threat to national security is an understatement.
Despite the frightening Jordanian and Moldovan incidents as well as the 30,000 unvetted Chinese who have surged the border but that no White House official cares about, Biden seems determined to invite more trouble. Accepting Gazan refugees would heighten national security risks to levels not seen since before 9/11. Before taking the drastic step that would admit Gazans as refugees, give them work permits, and put them on a path to citizenship, Biden and the State Department should familiarize themselves with an analysis The Washington Institute for Near East Policy published, “Teaching Terror, How Hamas Radicalizes Palestine.” The institute concluded that Hamas successfully radicalizes Palestinians not only to support and fund but to facilitate and participate in the group’s terrorist attacks. More than 25 years ago in 1997, the State Department designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. And even though Hamas is an organization that calls itself a local resistance group, it unsurprisingly targets foreign audiences from America to Malaysia with its web-based terrorist messages. Hamas raises the vast majority of its $2 billion annual budget abroad, including generous funding from Iran, United Nations agencies and so-called charitable groups.
Two-term Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who served in the Iraq War and spent 23 years in the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard, wrote a pointed letter to Biden which 34 Republican Senators co-signed that demanded a full accounting of his Gazan refugee vision. Biden, to quote Ernst, “is blowing off my work to prevent an Oct. 7-related attack on our own shores.” The White House referred Ernst’s letter to the Department of Homeland Security which further blew her off with the false promise that “Any individuals from Gaza who have traveled or would travel to the U.S. are thoroughly vetted, as the safety and security of the American people is our top priority.” The reality is that the administration has no intention to track, much less remove dangerous actors posing as refugees. A new Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report revealed how it has already failed to track the 77,000 Afghan refugees admitted into the country. The consequences of the Afghan withdrawal blunder remain to be seen.
Biden has hands full enough without tempting fate further with Gazan refugees. The White House’s first obligation is to rescue American citizens, not Gazans.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
Alert US Military Thwarts Would-Be Terrorists Alert US Military Thwarts Would-Be Terrorists
A century ago, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, also known as the Immigration Act of 1924, which precipitated a two-generation-long pause in mass migration. Upon Coolidge’s signature, multiple benefits to citizen workers ensued immediately. Immigration dropped from 707,000 in 1924 to 294,000 in 1925. Within a year, more than 400,000 fewer job seekers entered the U.S. During the next 45 years, the same time length as the Great Wave which lasted from 1870 to 1924, immigration averaged 200,000 annually, dramatically less than earlier totals.
The immigration pause meant that those who arrived during the Great Wave had time to assimilate into a stronger, more cohesive nation. Monetary benefits—higher wages— accrued to blue-collar workers, and especially to black laborers who prospered at an even faster rate than their white contemporaries. Black American leaders have been historically onboard with significant immigration reductions. Of course they are. Basic economics 101 dictates that a tight labor supply is good for workers. When the 1924 act cut off the large supply of foreign-born labor, employers had nowhere to turn except to American workers who they had previously underpaid and subjected to often abysmal on-the-job conditions. And without Congress authorizing a continuous stream of foreign labor into eastern and Mid-Atlantic factories and steel mills, roughly six million southern blacks migrated north to take advantage of newly created job opportunities. W.E.B. DuBois wrote in the 1929 issue of the NAACP magazine The Crisis that the 1924 legislation’s “stopping…the importing of cheap white labor on any terms has been the economic salvation of American Black labor.”
In 2020, the Brookings Institution issued a paper titled “Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap” that chronicled U.S. history’s multiple examples of black earnings being denied before it had a chance to grow and create generational wealth. At the time of the Brookings’ study’s publication, median black household wealth was less than six percent of white wealth. African American households, Brookings found, had too few net assets to withstand even temporary financial setbacks. A major cause that prevented blacks from moving up the economic ladder was more than fifty years of high immigration that began with the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act of 1965, which loosened labor markets and kicked off another immigration Great Wave which endures today.
One hundred years after Coolidge, immigration is more contentious than at any other point in American history. President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda represents the worst of worlds. Millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, of which a significant percentage are working age males, have crossed the U.S. border apparently with few marketable skills in today’s technology-oriented society. Most seem to have come to the U.S. in need of affirmative benefits, or perhaps the benefits were the incentive. The consequences of Biden’s welcome-the-world immigration agenda are reflected in the Census’ report that the U.S.’s foreign-born population hit 46.2 million or 13.9 percent of the overall population in 2022, an all-time high. In 1970, the foreign-born numbered 9.6 million or 4.7 percent of the total U.S. population.
The largest population percentage increases from 2021 to 2022 by country were Afghanistan, up 229 percent; Venezuela, up 22 percent; Honduras, Nepal, and Kenya, each up 10 percent; Ghana, Brazil, and Colombia, each up 9 percent; and Ethiopia and Ecuador, both up 8 percent. The Center for Immigration Studies compiled the data which it collected from publicly available federal statistics. Too many people arriving in too short a period strains vital social services like medical care and education and depletes irreplaceable natural resources like water and agricultural land, exactly the outcome that the 1924 legislation prevented.
Because it imposed national quotas that favored northern Europeans and excluded other nations, the 1924 act was flawed. But its intention to reduce immigration to manageable levels was not. The 1924 Congress expressed the noble desire that the nation grow at a slower, more sustainable pace and that its citizens’ needs be prioritized. Since Biden and his inside circle have different, nefarious objectives, legislation like the Immigration Act of 1924 won’t happen during what remains of the president’s term. Even truly securing the border may be too much to hope for, but it would be a good starting point.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
