Jeremy Lin is an unlikely superstar.
He received no athletic scholarships out of high school and was undrafted out of college. He started his pro-basketball career with the Golden State Warriors after he graduated from Harvard University in 2010. He was later waived by the Warriors and the Houston Rockets before joining the New York Knicks early this season.
Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, and the first American player in the league to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He is also the American-born son of Taiwanese immigrants.
But Lin might not be playing for the Knicks, or for any other team in the NBA, if the anti-immigrant restrictionists had their way.
Hiding behind a false veneer of moderation, retrictionist groups work to end virtually all immigration to the U.S., envisioning an America whose gates are closed to the best and brightest -- the scientists, entrepreneurs, artists and, yes, the athletes. The anti-immigrant nativists claim to stand for "legal immigration" which makes for an attractive sound bite until you read the fine print of their agenda. NumbersUSA, for example, calls for a "time-out" on practically all immigration. That extreme and economically dangerous position is echoed by other restrictionist groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The restrictionists cite the "rule of law" as the basis of their radical anti-immigrant agenda. Yet their commitment to it is hollow. In fact, they endeavor to eviscerate a core provision of the U.S. Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment citizenship clause. Directly overruling the infamous Dred Scott decision and codifying the common law rule that a person born within the jurisdiction of the U.S. is an American citizen, the Fourteenth Amendment forms the cornerstone of American civil rights by ensuring due process and equal protection to all persons.
So, it is nothing less than shocking that today, after more than 150 years, during which time Americans have fought and died for the right to be free from slavery, discrimination, and other forms of degrading and inhumane treatment, we bear witness to the nativists' brazen attack on the Constitution's guarantee of citizenship.
Make no mistake, the enemies of constitutional citizenship are the same folks that engineered the draconian "Show Me Your Papers" laws in states like Arizona and Alabama. Yet while they strive to turn the clock back to 1867, when Dred Scott was the law of the land, they fail to cite a single credible study supporting their ill-advised position that gutting the Constitutional Citizenship Clause will fix any particular problem. Nor do they bother to explain exactly what problem it is they intend to solve.
If the anti-immigrant restrictionists truly believed in the rule of law they would embrace Constitutional Citizenship as it is enshrined in the Constitution -- the supreme law of the land. But their commitment to the rule of law is limited to phoney lip service. Their true objective is to halt virtually all legal immigration, particularly Latino immigration, even at the cost of abridging civil rights and returning our nation to the days of Dred Scott when people were viewed as commodities to be bought and sold and abused for a price.
Which brings me back to Jeremy Lin, the unlikely NBA superstar. In just the few short weeks that Lin has been playing he has lifted the spirits of basketball fans all over New York, something that hasn't been seen since the Knicks' glory days. But if the restrictionists had their way his story would not be possible and America would lose out, just as it does when it closes its doors to those seeking the American dream who, over the course of American history, have helped make this country the greatest country in the world.
Lin, an American-born son of Taiwanese immigrants, is one more shining example of the value of immigration. His contribution is a gift, a blessing for all Americans to cherish and enjoy.
Follow David Leopold on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DavidLeopold
As far as legal immigration which Americans don't have a problem with in general, however, our legal immigration numbers are horrendous. The levels are 10 times what they were from the 1940's to the 1970's and currently we have to create 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with the current influx of legal immigration. We have stopped legal immigration in the past until things righted itself and there isn't a problem to slow it down now until the United States gets back on it's feet again. Also, I won't even get into multiculturalism being pushed on the US and Europe by a certain group.
It may be instructive to take a look at the facts. Illegal immigration is down substantially--in fact, the Department of Homeland Security reports that numbers of illegal migrants are down to levels not seen since the 1970s when Nixon was president. http://wapo.st/v1sb4Q
It also may be helpful to look beyond the easy talking point that immigration is a zero sum game when it comes to jobs--that each job an immigrant takes costs a US worker a job opportunity. The facts say otherwise. Here are the facts--also available at http://bit.ly/hNwZze
--Immigration does not cause unemployment;
--Immigrants actually create jobs as consumers and entrepreneurs;
--Immigrants and native-born workers are usually in different job markets, so they don’t compete;
--Immigration actually gives a small wage increase to the vast majority of native-born workers.
What is your point?
What is your point?
What is your point?
Who knows, if people like you had there way. an ILLEGAL ALIEN would have taken Lin's place at Harvard and he would have never made it the NBA. Ever think about that one.
It's a situation only an employer could love. We let in staggering numbers of foreigners in both high and low income professions under worker visas such as H-1B, L1, OPT, H-2B, etc. Of course these workers "coincidentally" come in very high percentages from the low wage countries such as India (forget higher wage Japan or Western Europe). Anyone think THAT'S an accident? Employers love it because the visa terms make it very difficult to switch employers. They have captive indentured workers for years to come.
We so much need to reduce BOTH legal and illegal immigration!
One only needs to go to the web sites of the groups mentioned to see the truth of what they are advocating. I'm glad to see sites like NumbersUSA.com that stick up for citizens and the USA. We do not have unlimited resources to allow unlimited immigration. Can you allow people to keep moving into your house with no limits on how many? Our country is certainly bigger than your house but the strain on resources is the same.
With 23 million citizens out of work, we can't support more people nor do we need more to compete with for jobs.
There's nothing sacred about birthright citizenship: If the citizens think there is a better way, there's no special reason not to change it. It's not a civil liberty like the First or Fourth Amendments: It's simply one of two basic ways to do citizenship. Open border activists just like that it results in higher immigration; their sanctimony about the issue and demagoguery over it is because they fear people taking a critical look. If we didn't have birthright citizenship, they'd be pushing hard for it so it's hypocritical for them to act like the other way around is somehow outrageous or "shocking".
"returning our nation to the days of Dred Scott when people were viewed as commodities to be bought and sold and abused for a price."
Did the author seriously just say that "restrictionists" (anyone who is for less than unlimited immigration?) support slavery? Do you know what views people "as commodities to be bought and sold and abused", i.e., slaves? Guest worker programs!
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/close-to-slavery-guestworker-programs-in-the-united-states
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chen/guest-workers_b_1286251.html?ref=immigration
"Radical anti-immigrant agenda"? It's not these horrible "restrictionists" who are pushing such programs which are an integral part of the "comprehensive immigration reform" bills. Naturally, it's the analogical slave owners (employers) and slave traders (immigration lawyers). I wonder how many of those calling for CIR understand how exploitative the guest worker component is.
"But Lin might not be playing for the Knicks, or for any other team in the NBA, if the anti-immigrant restrictionists had their way."
This is one of the unlimited immigrationists' oldest and most simplistic favorites. If we exclude even a single person from coming to the U.S., that person might be "the next Einstein". What's silly about it is that by the same logic we should let no one in because the first person might be a serial killer. You don't make rational policy based on needles, good or bad, in the haystack. The practical issue is that the haystack is about 6 1/2 billion people (and growing rapidly). It's simply not realistic to try to capture all the good needles but somehow that never occurs to unlimited immigrationists because they are ideologues, not pragmatists.
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"after more than 150 years, during which time Americans have fought and died for the right to be free from slavery, discrimination, and other forms of degrading and inhumane treatment, we bear witness to the nativists' brazen attack on the Constitution's guarantee of citizenship."
Non sequitur. Slavery, discrimination, etc. have nothing to do with jus sanguinis vs. jus soli. The trend is countries moving away from birthright citizenship and that does not result in degrading and inhumane treatment. Polls indicate a majority of Americans think birthright citizenship is not what we should have.
Apparently whatever number of immigrants we are accepting per year, even if it were 100 million, that number immediately becomes magically blessed with "compassion" fairy dust. So if anyone were to politely raise there hand, and for reasons of the high number of unemployed Americans, environmental protection, etc., were to propose we only import 999,999,999, they would be answered with horrified cries of 'Hate!' and 'Anti-immigrant!" Fortunately such McCarthyite tactics are scaring fewer people all the time.