The Only Question About Immigration That Matters
The Greek-born Spyros Skouras was president of 20th Century Fox during Hollywood’s fabulous ’50s. Early in the decade he paid a visit to his birthplace and was welcomed as a conquering hero. My father took him to the royal summer palace in Tatoi, where they had drinks with Queen Fredericka and King Paul. The queen was the Kaiser’s granddaughter, known not to mince her words. “If a war erupted between America and Greece, which side would you be on, Mister Skouras?” Old Spyros did not hesitate: “I left Greece as a penniless orphan and America gave me my chance. I pray it will never happen, but I’d be on America’s side.”
Dad didn’t tell me of the queen’s reaction—I presume she was not best pleased—but praised Spyros for telling it like it is. My father’s factories had been blown up during the communist revolution of 1944, and although he rebuilt them, he went into shipping in America and kept his offices there for the rest of his life. He was damn pleased with Spyros’s answer, as was I when I heard the story. After all, the first words I learned in America were “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands….”
I bring this story up after the events in Minneapolis. I was taught as a child that a nation is built from history and defined by borders. Illegal immigration is unlawful and against the integrity of the state, as illegal immigrants have no loyalty to the nation’s institutions, laws and customs. But the media have made ICE look at times like an invading army, when all it is doing is enforcing the law. Some bad implementation of the law has not helped. But comparing ICE to the Gestapo illustrates the length the left is willing to go in order to gain followers and corrupt the truth.
Never mind what such shenanigans do to the nation. After all, the Floyd riots enriched Black Lives Matter bosses, some to multimillionaire status. The plight of average Americans who have to deal with illegal immigrants in their neighborhoods, and who lose jobs and wages to them do not concern the rich untalented Hollywood types screaming “F**K ICE” at the Grammys. Nor do billionaire media owners like the Sulzberger and Newhouse dynasties, which long ago left their shtetl in Eastern Europe and became very rich in America, give a damn. Their organs label ICE personnel domestic terrorists and compare Iranian suppression of dissent to the one in Minneapolis. One thing is certain: Deportation of illegal migrants will make or break not only Trump, but also the Republic.
Minneapolis is once again the epicenter of the radical effort to impose a left-wing ideology on the country. It seems to me that back in 1861 a war broke out over whose word counted more, the federal government’s or the state’s governor. Preening, scowling female Times propagandists report Berlin, 1936–like situations whenever ICE corners an illegal. In my not-so-humble opinion, President Donald Trump should strike down hard, because the other side is playing hard ball: A black female New York judge, Sheridan Jack-Browne, recently set free previously deported illegal immigrant, Gerardo Miguel Mora, accused of rape, strangulation, and crack possession among many other crimes. She let him go free despite being aware of a federal criminal warrant for his arrest. Now I ask you: Who is more responsible and far more criminal, the judge or the illegal? Protecting illegal aliens is now an anti-Trump symbol. A bit like importing smallpox to alleviate overcrowding.
Still, things are much better than when Biden’s rules-based international order saw U.S. force-feeding radical woke ideas to foreign countries. Southern Europe was immersed in laughter, especially when the rainbow flag was raised over U.S. embassies (while lefty busybodies were pillorying Supreme Court Justice Alito’s wife for flying Old Glory). Mass migration has strained Italy, France, Germany, and Austria, not to mention a Sweden that once was the most peaceful nation in Europe, now totally racked by migrant violence, brutality, and crime. There is no use mentioning Britain, where an ever-surging influx of immigrants are replacing work-shy Brits who prefer to be on benefits, but are themselves ill-educated and unskilled and have led to the collapse of social cohesion.
Let’s face facts: America evolved organically over centuries firmly rooted in the English language, common law, and Christianity. Those whose ancestors fought in Yorktown, in Gettysburg, at Omaha Beach and Vietnam have a right to doubt the patriotism of those who need a translator in the voting booth. Just as they have a right to question why we have to hear two national anthems before the start of the Super Bowl, one for black Americans, Francis Scott Key’s poem for the rest of us. Let the Somalis in Minnesota luxuriate in Somalia’s glorious past while learning American history before cashing their welfare checks. And Sulzberger and Newhouse should perhaps read up on how much fun ghettos used to be back in the old countries. They might start to appreciate this one a bit more.
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