A time for action

Back in 2014, the late Roger Scruton reported that police and social workers in Rotherham, a town in South Yorkshire, England, had covered up 1,400 cases of child abuse over 15 years. Why? Because the victims were all white and the perpetrators were Pakistani Muslim immigrants. Authorities didn’t want to “rock the multicultural boat.” Englishmen might think ill of Pakistani immigrants if the crime stats became public and interrupted the U.K. government’s relatively open immigration policy. Of course, the outrage that resulted from the cover-up and similar scenarios is exactly what they got in the end.

This has been the story, not just in the U.K. but in much of Western Europe for the past decade. Douglas Murray recounted these facts in The Strange Death of Europe, and Michel Houellebecq more colorfully depicted the same in his novel Submission. Both depict the invasion of liberal democratic nations by Islam while governments remained paralyzed by political correctness and the mandate of an “open society.”

The crisis emerging in Western Europe and the U.K. is entirely self-induced. Germany basically invited thousands of Middle Eastern migrants to enter since the 2010s.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Media breathlessly report that immigration is creating a populist backlash. Cries of “foreigners out” may seem crass to modern ears, but they are entirely predictable when the externalities of mass immigration include real violence and terrorism.

It is up to policymakers, if only for political self-interest, to be realistic about just how much disruption a populace and culture can take and how long their “forbidden loyalties,” as Scruton put it, can be castigated if multiculturalism is going to serve as the all-purpose cudgel. Charges of “xenophobia” can only hold people back for so long.

The German government has now promised deportations. Following a mass stabbing by a Syrian immigrant, the political class finally responded. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to crack down on immigration. He had promised a “big style” ramp-up on deportations back in June after an Afghan man stabbed a policeman. Of course, the same month the Scholz government announced that it would back off new legislation designed to deport foreigners who publicly approved of terrorist acts. As of yet, it is not clear exactly what Scholz is proposing. Even if this policy is successful, diminished public trust will take even longer to rebuild. And rightly so.

Back stateside, former President Donald Trump has said that, if elected, he will enact mass deportations. Whereas in Europe, unfettered immigration has enabled terroristic strikes from the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, here it primarily takes the shape of gang-related violence. It is difficult to find reliable reports on the number of illegal immigrants in the United States because of the politicization of the issue. It is probably somewhere between 12 million and 30 million. What Trump is proposing is no small operation.

The El Salvadorian who tried to kill eight people in Philadelphia just days ago is an MS-13 gang member and illegal immigrant. Cases abound of crimes perpetrated by illegal immigrants with preexisting criminal records—meaning that they are known to the government and have repeatedly violated the law even beyond their illegal entry.

Such occurrences and reports are destabilizing in ways that go beyond the crimes and victims themselves. The longer such conditions persist, the more the average American begins to suspect that what Scruton found in Rotherham is happening elsewhere, too. And when state governors like Greg Abbott of Texas attempt to patch up porous borders, they are met with federal resistance. Not a good look, to say the least.

Backlash is inevitable and always has been when immigration goes unchecked. American leaders used to think sensibly about these things. Writing in 1891, Henry Cabot Lodge recounted a lynching in Louisiana of several Italian immigrants suspected of Mafia-backed murders. Acts of such vigilantism were not to be condoned, but Lodge nevertheless blamed Congress for the episode given that such violence was foreseeable when immigration policy is mismanaged.

William Henry Drayton, addressing the South Carolina Provincial Congress in 1776, boasted that the Colonists had been loyal to George III despite abuses from Parliament until it became clear that the king could not or would not protect them. That was the breaking point. It is the breaking point for any people. Protection is fundamental to the national covenant.

Trump seems to get this, and his promise of deportations, while ambitious and abrasive to many, is the right policy. At this stage, however, the proposal is as concrete as that of Germany’s. Only time will tell. Deportations would almost certainly get more resistance from Democrats than his border wall did. But we can be sure this issue isn’t going away.