Yesterday, I testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security, and over more than three hours, several viral‐internet‐video‐hungry Republicans attacked me and my testimony directly—often personally—without giving me any opportunity to respond. Rep. Clay Higgins (R‐LA) even questioned whether Democrats bred me “in a laboratory experiment.” A Washington Examiner reporter called it “a lecture, not a hearing.”
I was there to explain my research demonstrating that expanding legal immigration is the solution to the chaos caused by waves of illegal immigrants trying to cross the southern border between the United States and Mexico. I was also trying to explain the data that show the illicit drug fentanyl isn’t smuggled in by illegal immigrants, but instead by American citizens at legal ports of entry.
But if I tried to speak, I was talked over and gaveled down. So below are some brief responses to some of what the hostile Representatives said.
“The most generous country in the world”
Rep. Higgins (R‑LA): [You’re] whining on about broken immigration system… We are the most generous, compassionate, wealthy western nation in the world on immigration.
The U.S. ranks in the bottom third of wealthy countries for its foreign‐born population share. This even counts our “generosity” toward illegal immigrants who we tried to ban. Rep. Higgins even cited Canada as having the more extreme policy.
But more than 21 percent of Canadians are foreign‐born (compared to the U.S. at less than 15 percent). To catch up to Canada’s rate, the U.S. would have to admit more than 20 million immigrants tomorrow.
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