Immigration and immigrants

To The Eagle,

Our invitation to the world is inscribed upon the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Nearly 100 million immigrants have come to the United States since its founding. While this represents the cumulative total of arrivals over centuries, the current foreign-born population reached a record high of approximately 53.3 million as of January 2025.

Unless you are a native born tribal member, you are a descendant of an immigrant. You are the beneficiary of what is referred to in our Constitution as “birthright citizenship”, established through the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868. Section 1 of the amendment states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside". Not all who have been legally accepted, or who have extra-legally appeared have remained.

Democratic presidents during their aggregate 60 years in power deported about 4.6 million people for an average of 76,635 per year. During the same time, Republican Presidents were in power for 67 years and removed about 3.7 million people for an annual average of 54,670.

The greatness of the country of which you are privileged to be a citizen owes that greatness to the 100 million who built it, and continue to build it, into what it is today. Turn a deaf ear to those who claim that immigration, and immigrants, are this nation’s greatest problem. E Pluribus Unum. JB Bouchard,

Puget Island