The United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary this summer which means immigration has been a part of our national conversation for 250 years, too.
The subject emerged in the document we consider our national birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.
The earliest reference to “immigrant” did not appear in any known record until 1788, so the 1776 document obviously doesn’t mention immigration by word. Rather, the word used then was “naturalization,” which is little more than semantics since only non-citizens would have the need to be naturalized.
What a lot of folks don’t know is that the Founding Fathers were very much pro-immigration if the Declaration of Independence counts for anything. In it, Jefferson, with the support of the Continental Congress, laid out the grievances against King George that led to breaking away from British Rule. The seventh such grievance was about immigration.
It reads, “He (the king) has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.”
Apparently, the Founding Fathers were just a bunch of open-borders, virtue-signaling bleeding hearts libtards who were intent on destroying the nation. Who knew?
Modern conservative thought portrays the Founding Fathers as infallible, immutable and precise in language, which is why the Second Amendment applies to AK-47s. Their original words are the final word, which means being anti-immigration is actually anti-American.
At the time, an independent United States had vast expanses of undeveloped land but a relatively sparse population. For the nation to survive and compete with European superpowers, it desperately needed more people, which is why the Founding Fathers actively encouraged immigration and fiercely opposed the British Crown’s attempts to restrict it.
Modern conservatives are as anti-immigrant now as they have ever been, which is why a lot of them are losing sleep over the declining birth rate in the U.S.
Americans are having fewer babies, which threatens safety nets like Social Security and Medicare, the things elderly Americans rely on to survive.
The current fertility rate (births per 1000 for females of child-bearing age) is now 1.57, well below the 2.1 rate needed to sustain the current population. At that rate, in 50 years one in four Americans will be 65 or older and the ratio of working-age Americans to retirees will hit historic lows.
Based on the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. teen birth rate (for ages 15–19) has plummeted by 72% and is now at an all-time low.
That data normally is good news given what we know about the many negatives associated with teen pregnancies.
But there are other worries that weigh most heavily on conservative minds.
A shrinking population would create worker deficits, slow GDP growth, undermine education funding and greatly reduce the tax base.
Most economists agree that the natural solution to the economic and demographic problems created by declining fertility rates is immigration.
But that’s a bridge too far for today’s conservatives who have been whipped into an anti-immigration frenzy in the Trump era.
Their solution is to make more babies.
But conservatives are more threatened than encouraged by this news.
A guest on Fox News is typical of the conservative view on declining teen birth rates.
“The problem is teens and young adults have fallen by 70% in the last two decades,” he lamented. “We’re telling them not to have babies, to wait until they are in a more stable life situation, so they are more financially secure.”
How irresponsible of these young folks, huh?
The conservative “solution” is to, pardon the phrase, “get busy.”
Do it for the Fatherland!
Outside of conservatives, the rest of the population believes immigration is more of a solution than a problem.
Our Founding Fathers thought so, too, for what it’s worth.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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