Mr. Speaker, no time to abandon policy that made America great

I was gratified to learn that Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican speaker of the House of Representative, believes immigration is the most serious threat to the country. I'm not sure it's the most serious threat, but it's in my top half-dozen.

Then I discovered that Johnson wanted to keep immigrants out. I want to let them in, just as Ronald Reagan did. In his last speech as president, he declared, "Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas." Without new Americans, Reagan believed, "Our leadership in the world would soon be lost."

What would this country be like today without immigrants or their children or grandchildren? I spent much of my working life toiling in California's Silicon Valley, the hub of world technology. What would the Valley have been like without Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the son of a Syrian immigrant? And what about other companies such as search giant Google (co-founder born in the Soviet Union), electrical vehicle company Tesla (CEO born in South Africa), next-generation chip leader Nvidia (founder born in Taiwan), and so many more?

Nowadays I write novels. To learn from the masters, I read their works. In the last 50 years, seven Americans have won the Nobel Prize in literature. Four of them, including Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer, were themselves born outside the U.S., and Bob Dylan and Louise Gluck were the grandchildren of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Just as with technology, American literature (and music) would be much the lesser without them.

This is true in virtually any field of endeavor from architecture to sports to medicine. As a matter of fact, millions of people around the world are alive thanks to this year's Nobel Prize winner in medicine: Hungarian-born Katalin Kariko, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, laid the groundwork for development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The children of immigrants play leading roles on the national political stage, too. President Barack Obama's father was born in Kenya. The mother of his successor as president, Donald Trump, was born in Scotland.

How different would 21st century American politics be without those two game changers? And what about other aspirants to the presidency past and present, including Vice President Kamala Harris (parents born in India and Jamaica), Sen. Ted Cruz (father born in Cuba) and current candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (parents born in India)?

Currently a resident scholar at Harvard, I live among students who themselves, or whose parents, come from countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. Talking to them reminds me of my own background. I, too, am the progeny of immigrants, who came to this country to escape persecution and to take advantage of the opportunities it offered.

Current law has us sending international students home after graduation even if they buy into the American dream and want to stay. The late Bob Noyce, inventor of the microprocessor and co-founder of Intel, once joked to me that foreign students who earn a Ph.D. in engineering at an American university ought not be sent home - they should be required to stay in the U.S.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting the U.S. should swing open its gates and let all enter no matter what the law says. What I do mean to suggest is, first, that rhetoric attacking immigrants should cease. Trump should apologize for calling Mexican immigrants rapists. The new speaker of the House, a Trump supporter, should stop dissing immigrants by saying Democrats want to "turn all these illegals into voters for their side."

If Johnson, a self-described "Bible-believing Christian," doesn't want to study Reagan's speeches, he can turn to the Book of Leviticus, which could not be clearer: "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt."

Instead of spouting partisan rhetoric, Speaker Mike Johnson should be working on the one hand to protect American borders and on the other to ensure America remains a beacon of freedom and opportunity.

He should support the administration's request for funding that would expedite processing refugees at our southern border and deportment of those who have no right to stay. It's time to pass laws to update our immigration laws to ensure this country continues to benefit from the work ethic and brilliance of new Americans and continues to be a haven for the oppressed.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy said welcoming immigrants is "what this country has stood for for 200 years." In 1989, Reagan said immigrants "give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. ... They renew our pride and gratitude in the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world."

Time to heed those words. And to act on them.

© Creators, 2023