Assimilation Over Immigration

One hundred years ago this Sunday, the Ellis Island wave of immigration was brought to an end.

And all Americans are better for it.

For decades we’ve been taught to be ashamed of the period of immigration restriction the law inaugurated.

And it’s true that many supporters of the 1924 immigration law were motivated by racial and ethnic concerns that are rightly rejected today.

The descendants of the Southern and Eastern Europeans whose mass arrival prompted passage of the law (including my own forebears) are now integral parts of the American people.