Immigration: Assimilation or devastation

On Friday, we were warned by Sen. Chuck Schumer not to “jump to conclusions” about “the events in Boston” or “to try to conflate those events” with the immigration reform bill hammered out by Schumer and the other seven senators who have appropriately identified themselves as gangsters.

Schumer, a N.Y. Democrat, and the bipartisanly incorrect “Gang of Eight” unveiled their massive, 844-page immigration “reform” bill last week and hoped to rush it to a vote before anyone even knew what was in it. I’m not planning to try to read it, but I do know one thing — it’s not about reform and it’s not even really about immigration. 

There is plenty we could talk about regarding our immigration policies — which certainly need and deserve reform. But this bill’s main focus is on the millions of people who are already present illegally in our country, so let’s call it what it is: The Illegal Immigrant Legalization Bill. 

We should also be clear about one other thing. The Boston bombing suspects were legal immigrants to this country, and in that respect Schumer is right. The Tsarnaev brothers’ immigration status has virtually nothing to do with his Legalization Bill. But in a much more significant way, the brothers are the virtual poster boys for a bill which creates de facto American citizens while bypassing any need for those new citizens to express even the slightest interest in adopting American values, language or patriotism.

It is no accident that older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was once quoted as saying, “I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them.” 

There are lots of foreign-born people in our country who “don’t understand” their neighbors, who don’t understand our American values, who certainly don’t understand our history. But for some reason, that doesn’t matter to Sen. Schumer or to Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio, two Republicans who have decided to put out the welcome mat for people who have already tracked mud throughout our homeland as a result of their disrespect for our laws, customs and beliefs.

It doesn’t matter where such people originate — Mexico, Chechnya, Pakistan or England. We welcome all immigrants who follow the rules, seek to assimilate and love our great country. This is truly the land of opportunity for many millions who come here legally. But wherever people come from, they should be held to a high standard to obtain legal status, residency or citizenship in our country — and that standard should include willingness to accept the English language and the U.S. Constitution as the coin of the realm.

I can’t explain the motivation of the Senate’s gangsters in wishing to populate our country with citizens who often have no interest in assimilation, but I can plainly see what the outcome of such a policy will be.

Just look at Europe.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy declared in February that multiculturalism was a dangerous failure in France. He rightly said, “We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him.”

In other words, immigrants do not exist in a vacuum. They have a profound effect on the country that takes them in, especially if they resist assimilation. Indeed, without any respect or love for their adopted homeland, immigrants can have a devastating effect on culture, even a culture and language as zealously protected as those of France.

Nor was Sarkozy alone in his assessment. Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar have all recently decried the deleterious effects of unchecked immigration on their countries and cultures. 

And it isn’t just Muslims, although the growing population of Muslims in Europe has certainly been a huge problem, as entire neighborhoods have turned into “no go” zones for non-Muslims, including in many cases police and other authorities. There has also been a ridiculous demand from the Islamic president of Turkey that Europe must embrace “cultural diversity” or else risk a new Holocaust! This coming from a country where 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were exterminated during and after World War I.

So, yes, Muslim immigration is part of the issue facing American and other Western democracies, but it is not by any means alone. Europe also faces an incredible challenge because of the open borders created by the European Union. 

That means citizenship has almost become irrelevant, which is certainly the goal of the many “one world” advocates who think global peace will be the outcome of collapsing nationalism. If you don’t love your country, perhaps that looks like an attractive alternative. But for anyone who loves French culture, or Spanish culture, or American culture, it is a push toward homogenization that must inevitably deprive us all of true diversity.

It also puts us in danger. Exhibit A is Paris, where hundreds of armed police have now been positioned in or near major tourist attractions to guard against an influx of criminal gangs from Eastern Europe. Sounding like another sequel of the terrifying film “Taken,” whose plot featured Albanian gangsters kidnapping attractive women into sexual slavery in Paris, a recent report in the Daily Mail of London detailed the huge increase in gangs from Bulgaria and Romania. These gangs of Roma thieves (also known as Gypsies) surround their victims and take anything of value before moving on to their next target.

Come to think of it, sounds kind of like our United States Congress. Wake up, America, before it is too late.