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We keep hearing that America is a nation of immigrants. That's true, but there are two things they leave out:

**Every nation on earth is a nation of immigrants. It's just that the immigration in most cases occurred much longer ago, and thus isn't as clear in most nation's historical memory as it is in America. And with the exception of a few isolated islands (such as Iceland or Fiji), you'd be hard pressed to find a place where you could state with certainty that the current inhabitants are the descendants of the first inhabitants.

In the case of America we're told over and over that we're uniquely a nation of immigrants and thus should welcome continued unlimited immigration. But nations become nations because at some point they cut off immigration. Maybe not entirely, but they seal their borders and start being selective about the limited number of people they let in. That's how Sweden became Swedish, how China became Chinese, and so on.

But we're told that America must never seal our borders, and that we were evil for doing so on occasion in the past (such as circa 1924-1964). We're a "nation of immigrants", so we must forever be open to additional mass immigration.

This is combined with the guilt constantly foisted upon us for "taking this land from others." But with a few island exceptions, every nation on earth may be occupied by people who took the land from others. Again, it's just that it happened further back in history than in our case, in some cases so far back that it's in pre-history. And for all we know (Kennewick Man, and other anthropological discoveries) the Indians who preceded us took the land from someone else, not to mention that Indian tribes constantly warred with one another and pushed each other off territory. But, of course, all that is to be forgotten. We're only supposed to remember the evils of the European colonists.

**We're constantly reminded of the now iconic immigration wave of the Ellis Island era, as if the current wave has anything in common with it. The differences are enormous:

1) Ellis Island immigrants were all legal. Our current immigrant wave includes millions of illegals. The difference is like night and day, like the difference between buying a car and stealing one. Yet our media and politicians act as if immigration is immigration, so what difference does it make if they're legal or not? Thus, opposition to ILLEGAL immigration becomes "immigrant bashing", which is like calling it "motorist bashing" to oppose car theft.

2) We have a larger population now than in the Ellis era. It's one thing to welcome teeming masses when you have plenty of wide open spaces. It's another when urban sprawl is taking an increasing share of the land in many states.

3) We had no welfare state of any consequence during the Ellis era. People who came here had no choice but to work. That's not the case now. We have a full cornucopia of welfare programs, food stamps, AFDC, medicaid, and other goodies to which immigrants (including illegals) are instantly entitled, not to mention affirmative action programs to give them preference over people actually born here, in-state tuition (which Americans from just across the state line can't receive), and so on.

4) Immigrants in the Ellis era had to learn English. Period. End of discussion. Now, of course, we welcome immigrants to our "multi-lingual" society. To save immigrants to rigors of learning the language of the land to which they migrated, we're all supposed to accommodate their languages. And don't pay attention to the English-only amendment the Senate adopted yesterday. It says English will be America's language unless federal law says otherwise, which is like passing an amendment authorizing Swahili to be our national language unless federal law says otherwise.

5) Ellis immigrants likely did actually lower wages in America, but the current immigrants lower them more. Americans during the Ellis era had relatively little formal education compared to today. Circa 1900, only an elite minority went to college, and millions of Americans quit school before graduation to work on the family farm, or in the family grocery store, or whatever. The immigrants arriving on our shores then weren't appreciably below them in formal education levels. Today's immigrants are. We have people with third grade education flooding a land where millions of people have advanced degrees, and the majority at least graduated high school, and many millions have college degrees. Thus, the serious reduction in our overall wages.

6) Ellis immigrants arrived in a melting pot. Current immigrants arrive in a supposed multi-cultural "utopia" based on "diversity". Ellis immigrants came here and had no option but to become Americans. No one begrudged them the right to cherish memories and traditions of their homeland, but they were expected to be Americans first and Germans, Poles, or (fill in the blank) second. There's a huge difference between an American who happens to be of Armenian descent, and an Armenian who happens to live in America. Our current immigrants are becoming comparable to the latter. They're Mexicans (or some other nationality) who just happen to live here. They're Mexicans first, and American only second, and maybe not at all. Over time, we'll be like the Balkans, with feuding racial, religious, and cultural groups each claiming their particular turf.

7) Ellis immigrants came from overseas during an era when transportation was still difficult. You couldn't just hop a plane and fly back home each weekend. You severed most of your ties to your homeland when you came here. Today's immigrants come mostly from right next door, maintain close affinity with their homeland, and travel back there with ease, decreasing the likelihood that they'll fully become American, and feuling Reconquista ideas.

Sorry for the long post, but those are a few ideas I'd like our cowardly and traitorous politicians to consider.