Recent Immigrants to USA: Assimilate, Aschmimilate

This column from Joe Guzzardi should throw cold water on the “today’s immigrants are just like previous immigrants” argument:

Given what I have seen on the front line since 1986 (coincidentally, the year of the Reagan amnesty), I can say without hesitation that any amnesty, guest worker program, “Z-visas” or so-called “path to citizenship” scheme could well doom the United States.

However the bureaucrats may phrase their language, clever thinkers—the aliens themselves or their immigration lawyers—will always be able to work around it.

With the rare exception, most immigrants who have gone to my classes (English as Second Language, in Lodi, CA — Ed.) have shown little interest in becoming American citizens.

A significant percentage attended only because they were part of a federal or county program that mandated their presence.

From the very beginning, I noticed that immigrants were quick to look for ways around the system and use them to their own benefit.

….. But as it turned out, and as I learned painfully over the years, even in the non-English speaking neighborhood where the school is located, immigrants are unwilling to walk across the street to participate in free classes.

The same is true of classes in other areas of town. At satellite campuses in other sections of Lodi and north Stockton, no one cares much about learning what it means to be an American.

But nothing seems to penetrate the preconceived delusions of the open-borders crowd, whether it’s the business-at-all-costs Wall Street Journal or the far-lefties who despise this country anyway (and who in many cases see unfettered illegal immigration as a great way to undermine it).

So the prediction is that Guzzardi’s warning, like the others, will be ignored.