http://americandaily.com/article/14087

Our Immigration System Corrupted
By E. Ralph Hostetter (06/16/2006)

While America focuses on an illegal immigrant invasion across its southern border, its attention has been distracted from the very troubling legal immigration policies leading to naturalization and United States citizenship. Both the illegal migration and the legal immigration problems are now threatening America's cultural and ethnic future.

Such a statement opens the door to charges of racist, white supremacist, bigot, neo-Nazi and xenophobe. This is to say nothing of the cowering effect that "political correctness" has on free speech. This writer does not cower easily.

America's cultural and ethnic balance was established over a 230-year period. Its Mother Country was England, with its spiritual history of Christianity for at least a millennium.

With this birthright, America grew and prospered, creating a nation and economy envied by the entire world, which happens to be the cause of its present immigration problems.

Until 1965, the immigration stock that had created and sustained the United States was drawn from Great Britain and some 22 European nations, especially the Germanic and Scandinavian countries and Ireland, later Poland and Italy, all of which shared America's Western civilization culture and its spiritual connections to Christianity (and, with the tragic Nazi-sponsored exception, appreciation of Judaism).

America welcomed immigration. It was proud of its motto "E Pluribus Unum," out of many, one.

Immigrants came to the United States to become Americans. The immigrants knew that meant learning English, the national language. It meant learning American customs and abiding by America's laws. As a bonus, they were free to practice their own religion.

They willingly jumped into a crucible of assimilation. When they came out of what became known as a melting pot they were not just U.S. citizens, they were Americans.

American became a word that was carried on the lips of all those oppressed peoples of the world who "yearned to breathe free."

And then came the 1965 Immigration Act, described as "infamous" by some and a "disaster" by others. Take your choice. One thing is certain: It is causing untold damage to America's heritage and cultural base.

The Act abolished the national origin quota system and replaced it with a system which gave 60% of the newly established quota, 170,000 new openings, to Asians, who bring a different culture to America. The remaining 40 percent of the quota, 120,000 new openings, was designated for Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Russia, Mexico and Central and South America.

This increased the annual ceiling on immigrants to 290,000. It also marked the first time any numerical limitation had been placed on immigration from the British Isles and Europe, America’s source of immigrants for 230 years. Since 1965, the annual immigration ceiling has been expanded to 900,000 -one million legal immigrants per year.

What has been labeled the cornerstone of the 1965 Immigration Act is a provision dealing with "family reunification." This policy permits immediate relatives (i.e., spouses, minor children and parents of newly naturalized U.S. citizens over the age of 21) to enter the United States and qualify as legal Permanent Residents who will be permitted to live out their lives in America and receive its bounty of benefits. Bona fide legal Permanent Residents qualify to bring their relatives in, thus creating an endless chain.

Because of the family reunification policy, “immigration is now mostly ‘chain immigration,’ where recent immigrants who are already here sponsor their relatives,” according to an on-line (if not always accurate) encyclopedia, WIKIPEDIA.

Taking the year 2000 as typical, a total of 888,788 persons were naturalized. Of those, 121,273 came from Europe and the Americas and nearly three times that number, 331,136, from some 44 Asian areas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Only 11,739 new citizens were naturalized from Great Britain in 2000, a mere 1.3%, and 11,365 Canadians were naturalized.

With the family reunification provision, approximately 2.7 million relatives of these new citizens qualify to enter the United States in addition to the annual quotas.

In the years 1991 through 2004, 3,613,781 Asians have been naturalized. To this figure add an additional 10.8 million non-quota immigrants (legal Permanent Residents) to bring the total to 14.5 million additional legal Asian residents now living in the United States.

The Immigration Act of 1965 has corrupted our entire immigration system. Taking advantage of the family reunification provision, Asian cultures measure a nearly three-to-one ratio with respect to European cultures immigrating to the United States.

The Immigration Act of 1965 must be repealed, abolishing the family reunification policy which violates every principle of controlled and legal naturalization. The new law must recognize all nationalities, but under no circumstances should it discriminate against the host nation, the United States, as the Immigration Act of 1965 most certainly does. The new immigration law must provide the necessary quotas to preserve the 230 years of America’s culture, heritage and traditions.

Every nation in the world has immigration laws that jealously guard its ethnic and cultural traditions.

The State of Israel is a prime example.

America deserves no less.

E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is an award-winning columnist and Vice Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation Board of Directors.