Immigration

One of the more remarkable aspects of the continuing debate over

American immigration policy is that the nation's liberal elites seem,

ever so gradually, to be finally catching up with the people. For years

opinion polls have shown that a large majority of the American people,

of all political persuasions and all ethnic backgrounds, want less

immigration. Yet year after year immigrants continue to flood across

our borders as "opinion molders," elected officials, business

executives, and professional eggheads insist that mass immigration is

really beneficial and its dangers are much exaggerated by "nativists"

and "racists."

Only in the last couple of years have a few books been published

that dissent from that view, and the appearance of these books,

published by major New York houses, suggests that the elites are

finally beginning to grasp what uncontrolled immigration means for the

people and the country they rule. What began as a popular protest

against elite policies and preferences has now started influencing the

elites themselves, even if the elites still like to imagine that they

thought of it first.