The Trump administration has halted immigration applications for people from 19 problematic countries that the administration had already subjected to travel restrictions. Further, the President wants to remove legal immigrants who were born in countries the White House deems high risk, part of a policy of "reverse migration" to steady the American culture.
The deleterious effects of excessive immigration are painfully apparent in our own history. However, so too are the benefits of pausing immigration, including America's highly successful 40-year pause in the 20th century, which led to a half-century of general unity. We have a partial blueprint, but one that we now need to build upon due to the negative impact of immigration policies in recent decades.
Trump was moving in this direction, but he has quickly sped up on the heels of two major news stories of Third World immigrants doggedly not assimilating, but instead importing their broken cultures to America.
First, there is the Washington, D.C., ambush where, allegedly, an Afghan national, who arrived with 190,000 other Afghans after President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from that nation, attacked two National Guard members, killing one and critically injuring the other. The alleged killer was an unassimilated, radicalized Muslim.
Second, there are the enormous welfare fraud scandals roiling Minnesota, coming out of the Somali ethnic enclave known as "little Mogadishu." It seems that billions have been stolen from taxpayers under Gov. Tim Walz and his Democrat administration. Of the 86 people charged, 79 are of Somali descent, so feel free to ignore the normal racist incantations of Democrats.
Adding further to the scandal, untold millions of the stolen loot were funneled to the Somali terrorist network Al-Shabaab. According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Al-Shabaab has "killed more U.S. citizens than any other al-Qa'ida affiliate" over the past 10 years.
Indispensable White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller framed it perfectly: "You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions and terrors of their broken homelands."
Immigrants reflect the culture of the country they came from, usually for generations. The Northern Europeans who settled in Minnesota brought and maintained a vastly different culture from the one the Somalis had just come from. Massive numbers of immigrants over a short period geometrically enhance this dynamic because they are not required to assimilate into the culture they chose to move to. This should not be controversial, and it explains Minneapolis as it is today.
And so, as Chris Rufo writes, "the fraud networks aren't so surprising; they reflect the extension of Somali institutional norms into a new environment with weak enforcement and poorly designed incentives." Because those incentives were designed for people of a different culture.
This is just so obvious. It is as pro-American and as America First as it gets for the Trump administration to dramatically change who we allow into the country, where they are from, and whether they can stay once they are here.
Sure, it's common sense, but that means Democrats, leftists, and the lamestream media won't get it. Because what we are seeing is a simple, if uncomfortable, truth for the worshippers of multiculturalism: Not all countries are equally good sources of immigrants.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem firebombed the point on X: "I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS."
Well then. That seems unmistakably clear. We make progress on this front with the implementation of new policies.
First, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is placing a hold on all asylum applications "regardless of the alien's country of nationality" and putting "a hold on pending benefit requests for aliens" from 19 countries identified by the administration.
Those countries are: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. A glance at the list reveals that a reasonable person understands that none of those countries have cultures and values remotely similar to those of America.
The DHS also ordered a review of "all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021."
Second, the administration is tightening work permits for migrants, another area of abuse over the years, with overstays. Currently, migrants enter the country on work permits with limited vetting. They are allowed to work temporarily while they're being vetted. This is a common pathway to a green card and citizenship.
The Biden administration, naturally, loosened the regulation so that once immigrants obtained a work permit, they could stay and work for up to five years without review. The Trump administration is changing that to an annual review, which allows for an expedited removal of immigrants who do not pass tighter vetting. Additionally, the administration is increasing vetting on the controversial H-1B visas.
The truth is that mass migration brings about significant cultural change generationally to the existing culture. Additionally, it imposes substantial economic and financial burdens on the existing culture. Modest, controlled migration is a net positive. Mass migration is a net negative.
We've had it wrong for a long time. Correcting it will take time and some pain. But President Trump has started it, and everyone who loves America should be grateful.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children,seven grandchildren, and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
