1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:08,080 “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:13,140 These poetic lines, engraved on a bronze plaque beneath the Statue of Liberty, speak to who 3 00:00:13,140 --> 00:00:16,600 we are: a nation of immigrants. 4 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:18,000 Until now . . . 5 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,720 As Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer lamented, “Tears are running down the cheeks of the 6 00:00:22,730 --> 00:00:24,410 Statue of Liberty.” 7 00:00:24,410 --> 00:00:26,640 We’ve turned our backs on those huddled masses. 8 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:28,100 Closed our borders. 9 00:00:28,100 --> 00:00:29,540 Separated families. 10 00:00:29,540 --> 00:00:31,920 Hardened our hearts. 11 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:36,180 Or so you would think if you only read the headlines or watch TV news. 12 00:00:36,180 --> 00:00:39,800 Just one problem: It’s not true. 13 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,960 The United States still maintains the most generous immigration policies in the world. 14 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:50,820 Generous to a fault...because the overwhelming numbers have stymied our ability to assimilate 15 00:00:50,820 --> 00:00:52,840 the huddled masses. 16 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,080 50 million residents of America are foreign-born. 17 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:01,359 In fact, today the United States has more immigrants as a percentage of its total population 18 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:04,420 than at any time since 1890. 19 00:01:04,420 --> 00:01:10,780 That’s why, to give one illustration, 176 different languages are spoken among students 20 00:01:10,780 --> 00:01:13,420 in the New York City school system. 21 00:01:13,420 --> 00:01:15,480 How did we get here? 22 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:21,600 For starters, America grants permanent residence to a million people every single year. 23 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:25,680 And that’s just the tip of the iceberg because of something you’ve probably heard referred 24 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,460 to as “chain migration.” 25 00:01:28,460 --> 00:01:33,080 Chain migration allows immigrants to sponsor not only their immediate family—parents, 26 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:39,160 spouses and children under age 21, but much of their extended family once they gain citizenship: 27 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:43,960 unmarried adult children and any children they might have, married adult children and 28 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:48,040 their children, and brothers and sisters and their children. 29 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:53,000 Princeton University researchers, using the most recently available data, found that immigrants 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,860 sponsored an average of 3.45 additional relatives each. 31 00:01:57,860 --> 00:02:02,580 So, the one million immigrants granted permanent residence each year potentially adds, 32 00:02:02,580 --> 00:02:06,480 over time, another three and a half million. 33 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:11,740 In addition, an estimated 100,000 refugees and asylum-seekers—people who claim to be 34 00:02:11,740 --> 00:02:16,640 fleeing political or personal strife abroad—enter the country annually. 35 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:23,400 From 2008 to 2017, the U.S. gave green cards to well over a million people for humanitarian 36 00:02:23,409 --> 00:02:27,079 reasons, allowing them to live and work here permanently. 37 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,900 After five years, they can apply for full citizenship. 38 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:32,400 We’re not done yet. 39 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:37,519 In that same time frame, nearly half a million more people came to America through the diversity 40 00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:43,140 visa lottery—a program designed to admit more people from “underrepresented” countries 41 00:02:43,140 --> 00:02:45,160 into the U.S. 42 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:49,200 Diversity visa applicants don't need a high school education, job skills 43 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:50,940 —or pretty much anything. 44 00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:55,980 And, thanks again to chain migration, spouses and unmarried children under 21 of visa lottery 45 00:02:55,980 --> 00:02:59,480 winners also get to come to America. 46 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:05,499 This non-stop flow of new legal immigrants—based on family ties instead of skills, abilities, 47 00:03:05,499 --> 00:03:09,859 and allegiance to American values—has, of course, been supplemented by millions who 48 00:03:09,860 --> 00:03:13,280 enter the country illegally and stay illegally. 49 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:19,140 Dominant media outlets use the euphemism “undocumented,” but the official U.S. government term 50 00:03:19,140 --> 00:03:25,140 used in federal statutes is “illegal alien”: an unlawful entrant who came without permission 51 00:03:25,150 --> 00:03:28,750 and stays in open defiance of our laws. 52 00:03:28,750 --> 00:03:33,370 The number of illegal aliens in the country is usually given as 11 million, but have you 53 00:03:33,370 --> 00:03:35,820 noticed that number never seems to change? 54 00:03:35,820 --> 00:03:39,460 Common sense suggests it’s higher—much higher. 55 00:03:39,460 --> 00:03:44,280 And though illegal aliens themselves don’t qualify for welfare, they receive free health 56 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,609 care in our clinics and hospitals, and through their American-born children they can expect 57 00:03:48,609 --> 00:03:53,980 to receive all manner of benefits—cash aid, food stamps, and housing vouchers. 58 00:03:53,980 --> 00:03:58,560 Their children are entitled to a free education in public schools. 59 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,360 Building a high-tech border barrier would certainly help stem this flow. 60 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,579 Ending chain migration is another obvious remedy. 61 00:04:05,579 --> 00:04:09,760 E-Verify, the national database that allows employers to check workers’ immigration 62 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:12,000 status, is also essential. 63 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,600 So is a fully-functioning entry-exit system to track visa overstayers. 64 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:22,640 But all solutions will ultimately fail unless we get control of the numbers and enforce 65 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:24,600 our laws consistently. 66 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:31,050 It’s Sovereignty 101: This is our home and we have not only the right, but the responsibility, 67 00:04:31,050 --> 00:04:37,300 to determine who comes in, how many come in, and what qualities and qualifications they bring. 68 00:04:37,300 --> 00:04:39,880 The truth is, we let in millions. 69 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:42,360 And, of course, millions more want to come. 70 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:43,740 Who can blame them? 71 00:04:43,740 --> 00:04:48,200 But it’s simply not possible or desirable to let in everyone. 72 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:50,180 And it’s not hateful to say so. 73 00:04:50,180 --> 00:04:52,680 It’s not hateful to protect our borders. 74 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,460 It’s not hateful to protect our citizens. 75 00:04:55,460 --> 00:04:58,930 It’s not hateful to protect our values. 76 00:04:58,930 --> 00:05:03,680 Lady Liberty may be shedding tears—not because we’ve stopped welcoming immigrants, 77 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:09,080 but because our ill-conceived immigration policies are threatening the American Dream. 78 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:15,800 I’m Michelle Malkin, CRTV host and author of Invasion and Sold Out, for Prager University.