Is Immigration Really an "All American" Idea? By Warner Todd Huston

The plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty sums up the general assumption most people have about where immigration fits into American principles. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore," the famously inscribed tablet goes. "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

For most people that about settles it. We are a "nation of immigrants." It's as American as baseball and apple pie. Not very long ago, I made this very claim in a discussion about the anchor baby issue. It seemed to me that since this was a nation of immigrants, we couldn't be intellectually honest and exclude people of foreign birth from having their children born on US soil being given automatic citizenship as set forth under the 14th Amendment. It was a natural assumption to make, but not one entirely informed. It was a matter that several letter writers quickly took me to school for seeking to disabuse me of my naive notions.

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