West’s Doors Closing (1993)

Summary

Conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan served as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan and was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996.  In 2000, the Reform Party nominated him for president. Buchanan delivered the following speech on immigration in June 1993.  In this speech, Buchanan advocated for restrictions on immigration, hearkening back to earlier efforts to restrict immigration of certain ethnic and racial groups as well as echoing current-day debates over U.S. federal immigration laws and policies. Throughout history, the American people and their leaders have debated the issue of immigration and its effect on the evolving national culture, on both constitutional and policy grounds. When the Supreme Court addressed the issue, it granted the national government broad power to shape the nation’s immigration policies.

Selected by

Christopher Brooks

Professor of History, East Stroudsburg University

Kenneth Mack

Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Document Excerpt

. . . Thus did the grandson of Winston Churchill, a week ago, call for a halt to “the relentless flow of immigrants” into Great Britain.  A volley of protest followed. . . .

. . . Mr. Churchill’s remark came just days before France’s interior minister called for ‘zero immigration,’ and only days after Germany voted to amend its asylum law. . . .

Before condemning Germany for restricting asylum-seekers, we ought to remember: Germany is smaller than Oregon and Washington combined, yet is home to almost 80 million people, among them 1.8 million Turks.  Still, 167,000 new immigrants arrived in the first four months of this year. . . .

. . . Germany today could be America tomorrow, if we do not address the twin issues of immigration and assimilation.

Consider the change in our own country in four decades.  In 1950, America was a land of 150 million, 90 percent of European stock.  Today the US population is 250 million—about 75 percent white, 12 percent black, 9 percent Hispanic, and the balance largely Asian-American.

By 2050, according to the Census Bureau, whites may be near a minority in an America of 81 million Hispanics, 62 million blacks and 41 million Asians.  By the middle of the next century, the United States will have become a veritable Brazil of North America.

If the future character of America is not to be decided by our own paralysis, Americans must stop being intimidated by charges of ‘racist’ ‘nativist’ and ‘zenophobe’—and we must begin to address the hard issues of race, culture and national unity. . . .

And the great American Melting Pot is not melting, as it once did.  After decades of heroic effort to integrate blacks more fully into American society, our failures remain as conspicuous as our successes.  Racial tension is rising. . . . [F]our in 10 felonies in San Diego County are the work of illegals.

While white-on-black crime has become relatively rare (white criminals choose black victims only 2 percent of the time), black criminals now choose white victims . . . 50 percent of the time.

And demands are growing that our heritage of individual rights be superceded by a new system of racial entitlements. . . .

Supporters of open immigration contend that Hispanic, Asian and Arab immigrants often bring with them the same strong family ties, respect for authority, and work ethic Americans have always cherished and celebrated.

Undeniably true.  But it is equally true that many Third World immigrants are living off public services, and many are going into crime. . . .

America needs to take what some have called a ‘time out’ on immigration: a closing of our southern frontier to invading illegals, by troops if necessary, a toughening of our asylum laws, a cutback on legal immigration to spouses and minor children of those already here.

Looking back down the 20th century, we see that all the great multinational empires have fallen apart.  Now, the multinational states – Canada, Czechoslovakia, India, Russia, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Ethiopia—are breaking apart.  Are we immune to all this? . . .