I read the letters to the editor each week and agree with some, cringe at a few and generally forget about them all by the end of Shabbos. This week proved the exception. I read Max Wisotsky’s response titled “Immigration Today Is Very Different Than It Was in the Past” (January 30, 2025) and found that I was unable to forget it, hence this response.
Mr. Wisotsky no doubt believes his positions to be based in reality, whether it be his fear of terrorism or his hope to protect the American way of life. Unfortunately, he’s forgetting most of American history. This is hardly the first time since our country’s founding that “Americans” argued against immigration because the population they seek to exclude are “undesirable.” If I was able to attach photographs, I’d include political cartoons that railed against the immigration of the Irish, Germans, Chinese and others. I’d bring examples of propaganda promoting the immigration exclusion acts of the early 1920s. In each case, Americans were up in arms because the new population was the wrong kind of immigrant or brought crime or would seek to change American culture to fit their values instead of the other way around. And yet, with each wave that was proven untrue. Of course within every population there will be the exceptional and the criminal, but the former usually outnumbers the latter.
Mr. Wisotsky tries to frame his argument by pivoting to arguments against illegal immigration, making vague claims about how they take advantage of the welfare state and have a higher criminal rate than those who enter through legal means, and addressing the welfare issue—by and large illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal benefits.
More importantly, famous libertarian economist Milton Friedman argued that illegal immigration is integral to the American economy, as it provides cheap labor, fills jobs nobody else wants and they don’t take social security or other benefits. It keeps American produce and some goods affordable, which is a net positive to America. Sanctuary cities offering full benefits to illegal immigrants obviously changes the calculus of this argument, but that’s a very limited issue that can’t be addressed in this forum, nor is it federal.
Shlomo Hamelech said “there is nothing new under the sun.” This certainly rings true when it comes to fears about immigrants, both legal and illegal.
