Cal Thomas: Harming immigrants and nations

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says Americans can learn from the border crisis in Britain.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: The phrase “Climate change denier” has wormed its way into the modern lexicon. It’s intended to shame those who have a doubtful view of science supporting the idea that the world is in danger of burning up in weeks, months, or years. They can’t seem to decide on the timing.

There is another form of denial that one can clearly see. It is a denial that the southern border is “secure.” With pictures showing – and border patrol agents confirming – that more than eight thousand migrants are crossing into the U.S. every day without authorization, it is a lie to say the border is secure.

Sometimes it takes a person from outside the country to wake us up to threats we face. Russian writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn did that in a 1978 Harvard commencement speech, in which he warned that the West suffered from “a decline in courage.” The left hated the speech, but he was right in his Cold War period indictment.

Last week, the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman delivered remarks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. She warned of the dangers of uncontrolled immigration without assimilation that now threatens America, Britain, and other prosperous nations. She called it:

SUELLA BRAVERMAN: An existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the West. It’s a basic rule of history that nations which cannot defend their borders will not long survive.

Ms. Braverman noted the majority of migrants are motivated by economic incentives, not persecution in their home countries. That, she said, does not fit the international definition of “refugee.”

BRAVERMAN: I believe that the nation state is one of humanity’s great civilizing forces. It creates a shared identity and a shared purpose. And that does not need to have a racial component. Typically it binds people of different racial backgrounds together.

She also said that a spirit of togetherness and unity produces patriotism, heroism and kindness:

BRAVERMAN: It is the belief that we have specific obligations to others, precisely because they are our fellow countrymen.

Then came a statement that should be obvious to all.

BRAVERMAN: Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the past few decades.

She referenced a 2010 speech by then German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which Merkel admitted that multiculturalism was a failed experiment.

Ms. Braverman is herself a child of immigrants. But she notes…

BRAVERMAN: There has been more migration to the UK and Europe in the last 25 years than in all the time that went before. It has been too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion.

The costs are staggering in the UK and U.S. and cannot be sustained as even more come. As with uncontrolled crime, an uncontrolled border is an invitation for more of the same. The solution is not difficult: finish the border wall and deport all but legitimate asylum seekers who fled their nations under political or religious persecution. The latest stop-gap government funding bill passed late Saturday night contains no funding for border policy changes, according to reporting in The Hill. What does that tell you?

Our constitutional republic is fragile and must be renewed by each generation. We are unlikely to get a second chance.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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