Jeremy Beck of NumbersUSA recently managed to smuggle an op-ed into the immigration-enthusiast New York Post
…the solution for overwhelmed communities then remains the only one that’ll work now—the federal government must humanely, but credibly, scale immigration back to a more sustainable level…
in response to public pressure … Congress sharply reduced immigration in 1924.
We can solve NYC’s migrant crisis—we did 100 years ago, November 29, 2023.
We can solve NYC’s migrant crisis — we did 100 years ago
— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) November 30, 2023
"A century ago, New York and other cities faced a migrant crisis that has striking parallels to the present one."https://t.co/JEp95hH2zo
He is of course referring to what, in my opinion, is the greatest piece of legislative statesmanship produced by Congress in the 20th century. It was celebrated in July by John Derbyshire: It’s 100 Years Since Calvin Coolidge, Who Signed The 1924 Immigration Cutoff Into Law, Was Sworn In As President!
Taking this position is pretty bold for NumbersUSA, which is usually timidly incrementalist in its proposals. Particularly as the 1924 Immigration Act has been luridly demonized, mainly it seems because a decade later it was inconvenient for the Jews wishing to leave Hitler’s Germany.
Jeremy Beck then reverts to a more characteristic NumbersUSA stance by justifying the 1924 Act almost exclusively in terms of it being good for American-born blacks.
What he says is true enough as far as it goes:
In 1920, just 20% of black Americans were considered middle class.
By 1970, more than 70% were. Between 1940 and 1980, real incomes for black men expanded four-fold, almost twice as rapidly as whites’.
Yet the narrowing of the racial wealth gap stopped after Congress expanded immigration in the 1960s and again in the 1990s.
And Beck does sneak a quote with general application.
According to Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to then-Vice President Joe Biden, one “surefire way to short-circuit” working-class upward mobility “is to turn on the immigrant spigot every time some group’s wages go up.”
Unfortunately, in 2023, with all Americans except plutocrats suffering the consequences of overprivileging and depolicing blacks, advertising that a policy would further benefit them is not likely to be compelling to many Americans.
What would work: frankly declaring that an immigration halt would benefit all American citizens, particularly (since there still a majority of them) whites.
This the proponents of the 1924 act had the courage to do, as Kevin MacDonald laid out for us in Was the 1924 Immigration Cut-off "Racist"?
…were the 1920s restrictions “racist-driven”? What, exactly does that mean? And could it be that the opponents of those restrictions had their own ethnic motivations? Motivations still to be found today?
NumbersUSA has always shied away from this line of argument.
Over the years the most powerful contribution the operation has made has been not arguments but statistics: their superb Congressional Grade Cards.
Unfortunately, as I noted in Massive NUMBERSUSA Ratings Failure On Mayorkas Impeachment Vote. Why?, on probably the most important immigration vote of this Congress many highly rated GOP Congresscritters failed America.
In recent years, the polarization on immigration has become intense. Perhaps an element of gaming the system has crept in too.
Numbers’ ratings have not yet been updated to reflect the Mayorkas atrocity. How this is reported will say a lot about the continued utility of this wonderful service.
Happily, the New York Post commenters are made of sterner stuff (links added, typos uncorrected):
Uppity Female
Democrats want wide-open borders to replenish the voters they're losing to incompetent policy. It's easy to fix. Enforce the laws that are already on the books.
chiefdeputy21
The only way to deal with this is to immediately deport every alien that has come here illegally since 2018. Shut down our borders and allow no immigration until congress comes up with plans and laws for immigration that includes, manageable monthly quotas background vetting, additional border patrol, cops, temporary housing and safety and security of American citizens. That is a good start for a immigration reform.
Edward Anderson
Actually this is not a crisis. Its a planned political event. Each time our government removes barriers to those flooding into this country, and enables this situation by providing housing, food and welfare, they are creating more of the problem. They are jeopardizing the welfare of working Americans, their financial status and their right to be secure in their own homes. We must restore a government in Washington that puts the needs of American citizens first, not last. Thats how we fix this.
Carolyn
The solution is simple and obvious... militarize our border and deport millions and millions of illegals. New York City alone may have as many as 4 million illegals. They have a tremendous sense of entitlement and love flouting the law. They don't belong here. Deportations will free up millions of units of housing and cause wages to rise for Americans
Chris Greco
But 100 years ago it was legal immigration that they curtailed. What is going on now is illegal. The Federal government doesn’t want to stop it, that’s why it has been going on. They want the dependents voting Democrat, pure and simple.
There are 180 comments and so far I have not found a bad one. Read them to cheer up.
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