Were the Founders in Favor of Immigration? Yes

In the Rose Garden last week, President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s long-awaited immigration-policy overhaul, designed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner to unite Republicans on the issue before 2020. The president, in a rare display of eloquence, said he wants the U.S. to “become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind.”Wait a minute. That was George Washington, America’s first president, the general and military strategist who led the colonies in a successful eight-year rebellion against King George. Our nation’s most heroic founder believed that immigrants “whatever nation” or station of life they may come from should be welcomed in the newly formed United States and allowed to “settle themselves in comfort, freedom and ease in some corner of the vast regions of America.”What Trump said in the Rose Garden was this: “Democrats are proposing open-borders, lower wages, and frankly, lawless chaos. We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages, and safety of American workers first.” So much for what Washington called the “persecuted part of mankind.”The Trump proposal would largely replace the current family-based system that enables immigrants to sponsor their relatives with a system that favors highly skilled, “financially self-sufficient” immigrants.  Continue reading...