For the past few days, certain highly visible elements of the MAGA coalition have been sparring with one another. Specifically, X users have been privy to an extensive immigration policy flame war between two competing MAGA coalition camps: the pro-immigration “tech bros,” on the one hand, and the nationalist-populist immigration restrictionists, on the other hand. The debate has focused, above all, on the thorny question of so-called high-skill immigration. A Politico headline summarized the dispute as “Elon Musk vs. Stephen Miller.”
The “tech bros,” led by Musk and his incoming Department of Government Efficiency co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy, have been arguing that we must amend America’s already generous and already byzantine immigration laws to permit more “high-skill” foreigners to come work here on H-1B and O-1 visas. This, we are reliably informed, is necessary because there are simply not enough qualified Americans to fill the precious roles in industries such as high tech. The argument has, at times, sounded outright offensive; Ramaswamy, for instance, justified his preference for cheap foreign labor by excoriating American culture itself.
Call it the “America First case for America Last.”
The actual “America First” constituency of MAGA – those representing the men and women who have been sold out by decades of neoliberal failure – has responded to the avaricious “tech bros” with dismissal and, at times, righteous indignation.
It is certainly salutary that the exciting MAGA coalition is airing out its dirty laundry before Donald Trump resumes power in – thank God – three and a half weeks’ time. It is even more salutary that the debate is not over the relatively easy issue of illegal immigration but over the more complex issue of legal immigration.
But as interesting and healthy as this debate is, it is imperative that the nationalists-populists win – and that the “tech bros” shut up and be put back in place.
Immigration is the most important issue because it affects every area of American life. It affects the macroeconomy, the labor market and the welfare state. It affects national security, homeland security and everyday crime. And it affects culture: our religion, our values, our ethics, our traditions, our customs, our lifestyles, our habits and our way of life. It affects the most foundational questions in all of politics: who we quite literally are as a people and as a nation.
The greatest of America’s Founding Fathers certainly had thoughts on this great question. Alexander Hamilton, writing pseudonymously in 1802, opined: “The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education and family.” Furthermore, he added, “how extremely unlikely is it that (foreigners) will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism?”
Nearly six decades after the passage of the Ted Kennedy-spearheaded Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, we have endured more than enough mass migration to assess how things are going: not very well! There no longer is any cognizable “common National sentiment” in these United States. What may have once been “common” – in terms of shared language, religion, customs and folkways – is now diffuse and balkanized. Once-iconic American cities, such as Detroit, now have suburbs that have become Paris/Brussels-style “no-go zones.” Entire towns – actually, entire swaths of sprawling land – now barely speak English. Trust me on this one, from personal experience: Good luck getting an Uber driver who speaks a lick of English at Miami International Airport.
As for the allegedly pressing need for more “high-skill” immigration, specifically: As the always-astute Blaze Media podcaster Daniel Horowitz pointed out on X, in recent decades, “71% of jobs in Silicon Valley have gone to foreign workers, while 74% of American STEM graduates have failed to secure jobs in STEM fields.” Why, then, do we allegedly need to flood our nation – and our tech companies – with foreign, and mostly Indian, labor? We don’t.
Immigration policy cannot be driven by corporations. It cannot be driven by titans of industry. Immigration policy, rather, must be driven by the tangible interests of the forgotten men and women of this great country – the “bitter” clingers of Barack Obama’s scorn, the “deplorables” of Hillary Clinton’s ire. To continue our post-Immigration and Nationality Act experiment in mass importation – and, therefore, mass cultural disruption – in the name of “economic efficiency” or beefing up in our Great Power competition with China is to bite off the nose to spite the face.
Immigration isn’t just a side issue for MAGA and Trump’s Republican Party. It is the issue. There is no MAGA without a restoration of immigration sanity.
In fact, it’s time for an immigration moratorium. Now.
