Finally, a positive post about one of our Nation's pressing problems!

 

A Young Immigrant’s Poem to America

In the late 1960s, a boy left Havana in the middle of the night, and days later, he was standing on Merritt Island, Florida.

Luis Gonzalez | September 7, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

In the late 1960s, a boy left Havana in the middle of the night, and days later, he was standing on Merritt Island, Florida.

I was that boy.

I didn’t know anything about American exceptionalism, about the great argument over liberty and government.  I knew I had come to America, and almost immediately America began showing me things I had never seen: a new bicycle, chewing gum, Superman comics newer than 1960, ordinary pleasures that felt like evidence of a larger freedom.

And there were rockets.  They rose almost every night.  I didn’t understand the science.  I only knew something extraordinary was happening, and that the future had been waiting for my arrival before roaring across Merritt Island on columns of fire.

For thousands of years, the world was an old place.  Human beings walked, rode animals, sailed with the wind, cooked with fire, and lit the darkness with candles.  Civilizations rose and fell, but the basic human experience remained stubbornly familiar.

Then, in 1776, the world roared.

America was where the Age of Discovery, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment became a living experiment.  And with America came a question that changed the human condition: What if?

What if the old limits were not limits at all?  What if a human being were free to wonder, experiment, invent, fail, and try again?  What if a person could look at the world as it was and imagine it as it could be?

America didn’t invent curiosity.  It created a place where curiosity could run.  A thought became an experiment, an experiment became an invention, an invention became an industry that transformed the lives of millions.  Someone looked at darkness and asked, What if we could make our own light?  Someone looked at distance and asked, What if a message could travel faster than a horse?  Someone looked at the sky and asked, What if human beings could fly?  And someone looked at the Moon and asked the question waiting for humanity since the beginning: What if we could go there?

America kept answering with action.

Yes, let’s find out.

Let’s try.

Let’s build it.

And when we fail, let’s try again.

That is how a nation changes the world — not by declaring itself exceptional, but by doing exceptional things.  America earned her exceptionalism in laboratories and machine shops, on farms and factory floors, in universities and garages, through inventors, engineers, and dreamers who refused to accept that yesterday had the final word.

She earned it with immigrants, too.  People who came carrying little more than hope, talent, and a willingness to work.  They did not diminish America by coming here.  They became part of the engine.

I landed on Merritt Island at the exact moment America was doing something no civilization had ever done: leaving the planet.  A boy arrives from the Caribbean, and within sight of where he is living, Americans are building machines to carry human beings into space.  He doesn’t understand what he’s seeing.  How could he?  He’s a kid.  But a child feels something before he has the words for it.

That instinct didn’t begin with the space program.  America had been asking What if? since its founding.  What if ordinary people could govern themselves?  What if a person could own the fruits of his labor?  What if an immigrant could become an American?  What if a child born without wealth could rise by talent and determination alone?

Those questions built a culture that produced results, and fast.  Two hundred years, that’s all, from a fragile declaration by thirteen colonies to human beings standing on the Moon; from a world powered by muscle, wind, and fire to one powered by electricity, engines, and information.  The human race had waited thousands of years for that acceleration, and America stepped on the gas.

Perhaps that is why the shining city on a hill resonates so deeply.  Not because America was perfect, but because it was visible: a place where a human being could arrive with nothing and still possess a chance.  A place where the son of a Cuban exile could stand on Merritt Island and watch his new country reach for the Moon, thinking, “I can do that, too.”

That is what I see when I look back at the country I entered as a boy: not perfection, but possibility; not a flawless record, but one that kept getting back up.  Generations built what they were never simply handed.

The older I get, the more I understand what a gift that was.  That is why I keep coming back to those two words.  What if we can?  What if we try?  What if the next great discovery is still waiting, and somewhere tonight a child is looking upward, wondering whether human beings can someday go farther than the Moon?

Maybe she will.  Maybe the next great inventor is already sitting in a classroom, already taking something apart just to see how it works, already staring at the stars.

That is America: not finished, not satisfied, still reaching for something further out.  And God, I hope we never stop.

I know something now I could never have known then.  That boy did not simply arrive in America.  America arrived in him: the freedom, the possibility, the audacity to believe tomorrow could be better than today.

So yes, I believe that America is exceptional.  Not because someone told me to, but because I can look at the evidence: where humanity began, what Americans built, the Moon, and the boy who came from Havana to stand beneath those rockets.  We did this.  We earned it.  And I am damn proud to have become an American.

But I am not that boy anymore.  The rockets stopped rising over my childhood decades ago, and I never did make it to the Moon myself.  I became something more ordinary: a man who grew old on the soil his parents fled toward, who watched the country keep its promise even when it was inconvenient, even when the headlines said otherwise.

And now the ledger runs the other way.  My children were born on this soil.  Their children, and their children’s children, will be born on it, too.  The generation that gave up everything so the rest of us could be free is buried in it.  That is not a small inheritance.  That is the whole point.

So I have told my sons, more times than either of them cares to count, that the American Dream is not a myth handed down at graduation ceremonies.  It is still there, waiting to be seized, provided a man is willing to work for it.

Maybe, I tell them, you could go to the Moon.

 

"Importing labor to cover for Americans not having babies is not a good or permanent solution".

 

Deportations Shrink the Labor Force, But...

President Trump is fixing an epic crisis of illegal immigration. That doesn’t mean there aren’t economic trade-offs for doing so.

Nate Jackson patriotpost.us Sep 4, 2026

 “Dangerous” is the keyword in today’s Washington Post headline about the labor force under President Donald Trump. Stuart Anderson and Mark Regets, both of the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), authored an op-ed to dissect some numbers on immigration and the job market ahead of Labor Day, and they issue a stern warning to the president.

Donald Trump is on track to become the first president in a century to oversee a U.S. labor force that will be smaller when he leaves office than when he entered. Since the start of his second term, the number of people in the United States who are either employed or looking for a job has dropped by 1.6 million — and it’s largely because of Trump’s immigration restrictions. Unless those policies change, a shrinking workforce will cause slower economic growth and lead to more expensive public debt.

Anderson and Regets aren’t left-wingers. Anderson formerly worked for the libertarian Cato Institute and served under President George W. Bush as policy director at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Both are pro-immigration and anti-illegal immigration — a long-standing Republican stance.

But let’s back up a minute.

President Joe Biden and his inept border czar Kamala Harris allowed at least 10 million illegals to cross the border and stay in the country during their four-year term. The migrant flood created a humanitarian crisis at the border, added to a crime wave Democrats fomented over George Floyd, and triggered an immense backlash among voters disinclined to see our nation overrun by lawlessness. Trump promised that, if reelected, he would cut off the flow and begin deportations.

The NFAP duo notes, “The Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey for July recorded a decline of 1.8 million foreign-born workers since January 2025.” Overall, there are three million fewer immigrants in the U.S. since Trump took office.

Yes, Trump is doing what he promised.

That said, Anderson and Regets are correct that there are trade-offs. Historically, the labor force has grown at a generally steady rate. It suddenly shrinking will have real economic consequences. “Immigrants are not only workers,” they observe, “but also consumers.” Fewer consumers means lower demand, which means slower business growth.

Despite warnings from the likes of Paul Ehrlich about an overpopulation crisis, people are resources, and we need an increasing population. (I try to remind myself of this while sitting in rush hour traffic.)

Still, there are some important caveats. The pair mention demographics only in passing, and only regarding data from 20 years ago: “Falling birth rates slowed the expansion of the U.S.-born labor force after the early 2000s, but thanks to immigration the number of total workers still rose by 1.6 million during Barack Obama’s first term and by 3.9 million during his second.”

Importing labor to cover for Americans not having babies is not a good or permanent solution. But the birth rate has been falling for decades now, with no sign of changing course anytime soon. You can thank any number of factors for that, but it seems the culture has produced more Gloria Steinems and Lindsay Clancy defenders than babies. Until militant feminism recedes and married men and women start producing more children, the demographic spiral will continue.

Another factor is the number of unemployed or underemployed American men. Our Samantha Koch delved into this underreported crisis earlier this week, as did our Weekly Verdict podcast team. Koch said, “Roughly 44 million working-age men are now outside the labor force — about nine million more than in 2012 — while male labor-force participation has fallen to just 66.8%.”

In other words, the size of the labor force is not necessarily an immigration problem. And men leaving the workforce is both the result and the cause of a whole host of other problems, including the demographic spiral.

There is, however, good news on the economic front. The economy created 162,000 jobs in August, the best showing since April. The headline unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

Next up is a manufacturing boom. Political analyst Gary Bauer sums it up in a bulleted list:

• New factory orders rose 0.9% in July, nearly double the “experts’” predictions.

• Durable-goods orders are up 7.6%.

• Machinery orders are up 12.3%.

• Computer and electronics orders are up 14.3%.

• Primary metals orders are up 14.4%.

• Industrial machinery and communications equipment orders are up nearly 40%.

• Manufacturing job openings rose to 580,000 in July, up 35% from one year ago.

There are reasons to dislike President Trump’s tariffs, but it certainly seems that they’re spurring at least some of this growth.

In any case, the most important policies for economic expansion are low taxes, limited regulations, and a secure border with sane immigration numbers. For good measure, let’s throw in growing families.

Happy Labor Day.

 

One of the 'most important' articles I have ever posted! Take heed America!

 

Muslim Immigration 25 Years After 9/11

Thomas Gallatin patriotpost.us 9-3-26

Islam has grown in America, and with it, so have antisemitism and anti-Americanism.

In just a few days, our nation will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in which 19 Islamofascists murdered nearly 3,000 people.

The perpetrators of those attacks were Islamic terrorists tied to Osama bin Laden’s jihadist organization al-Qaida. This is all well-established fact, and the reason for America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The enemy at the time was clear, and the nation was united in fighting against them and seeking justice.

Twenty-five years later, that unity has all but disappeared, as has the identification of that original enemy. Instead, Islam is increasingly excused, if not defended, compared to those “dangerous Christians.” This false narrative has become a popular talking point on the Left, including from the likes of Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico, who asserted that “my religion [Christianity] has done more damage to both [Islam and Judaism] than they’ve done to each other.” He claimed that Hindus and atheists are “more Christlike than some Christians.”

He made these statements back in 2021, and while he’s sought to downplay them, they serve as an example of just how far this condemning and blaming of America and our Judeo-Christian values has gotten.

This is further evidence of why New York City elected a Muslim mayor, whose own views of America and our war against Islamic terrorism mirror Talarico’s.

Instead of becoming more wary of Islam and its ideology, we have become self-critical, self-loathing, and, frankly, intellectually disingenuous concerning what Islam teaches, advocates, and produces.

In 2001, the Muslim population in the U.S. numbered 1.8 million. Today that number has swelled to 4.5 million. In many ways, Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York can be attributed to the growing population of Muslims in the city, which numbered 400,000 on 9/11 and now exceeds 700,000.

Even in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks, commentators and politicians warned against demonizing Muslims. Certainly, the vast majority of Muslims living in the U.S. at the time had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks.

But the obvious question that few seemed willing to raise was that of assimilation.

Can Muslims fully integrate into American culture, which, as noted above, is inherently grounded in a Judeo-Christian ethic and value system that recognizes and defends the fundamental God-given rights of the individual to pursue life, liberty, and happiness freely?

Unfortunately, the track record of rising Muslim politicians within our nation is exposing how many don’t love America and its founding principles and values. In fact, more often than not, they express disdain for our nation.

For example, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar dismissively referred to 9/11 during a 2019 speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). She erroneously and obnoxiously claimed, “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

“Some people did something” on 9/11. And exactly who lost any civil liberties? The comment brought widespread and deserved condemnation, which Omar simply spun as more “evidence” to justify her false claims.

You would think that a woman who has fled the repressive and corrupt Islamic nation of Somalia to enjoy the freedoms, security, and opportunities here in America would have a positive and thankful attitude toward her new home.

Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed expressed a similar negative attitude. In 2021, El-Sayed penned an op-ed in which he warned that the greatest terrorist threat to America was “‘homegrown’ and ‘radicalized’ White men.” Evoking the woke language of the anti-American Left, he wrote:

On 9/11 millions of Muslim Americans were called to defend it. Admittedly, at first, we demurred. Our leaders told us this would pass. The best course of action, they said, was to keep our heads down, to “fit in” — change our names, fix our accents and hide our heritage. The patriotic duty was to assent to the implication that we were guilty until proven innocent, to take our collective punishment with a smile for the privilege of playing our part in a war on terror increasingly defined in opposition to our very identities. Only in complicity could we prove that we were more “us” than “them.”

It only got worse, though. The cancer born of a bellicose White supremacy that has stained so much of our history metastasized still.

Did America round up Muslims across the country and put them into internment camps? Did America ban Islam and prevent the building of mosques? Obviously not, and yet El-Sayed still plays the victim.

In fact, America went out of its way to clarify that the jihadi terrorists were solely to blame for 9/11. The “War Against Terror” was just that — an aim to eliminate terrorist threats to our nation, as any government worth its salt would do.

But 25 years later, America, rather than Islamic radicals, is being blamed. Antisemitism is on the rise in ways that no one would have believed possible, especially after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel.

Much of this emergence of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, especially on the Left, can be traced to Muslims in America. They’ve espoused this racist ideology often in defense of radical Islamists like Hamas.

Immigration has historically been a net positive for America. But not all immigrants are the same, nor do they hold the same values. Immigration is positive only when immigrants embrace assimilation and truly become Americans.

But how do you assimilate to a country you fundamentally oppose? You don’t. Omar, El-Sayed, Mamdani, and other Muslim leaders are providing a troubling example of this reality. Assimilation and integration are not their fundamental goals; rather, it appears that occupying, supplanting, and subjugating are.

Call it the vision for Americastan.

Instead of a conviction that our American Judeo-Christian values are good, right, and true, and should guide us and be promoted, we as a nation have lost our mind and heart to a godless secular malaise known as postmodernism. As a result, we have no defense against those who point out our moral failings as if they were the sole defining element for our existence.

To put it bluntly, radical Islam was to blame for 9/11, but the spread of Islam in America is due to us replacing our conviction in the righteousness of our values with a self-loathing, guilty conscience.

 

Here we go again, a Federal Judge legislating government policy!

 

Federal judge blocks President Trump's latest push to restrict birthright citizenship

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman granted the preliminary injunction in a case brought by two immigration advocacy groups that had also challenged the initial attempt last year to limit who is eligible for automatic citizenship at birth.

By Misty Severi 9-2-26 justthenews.com

A federal judge on Wednesday night blocked President Donald Trump's latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, which comes months after the Supreme Court ruled that his previous executive order was unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman granted the preliminary injunction in a case brought by two immigration advocacy groups that also challenged the initial attempt last year to limit who is eligible for automatic citizenship at birth.

The president's latest executive order expands the definition of what children born in the United States would be ineligible for automatic citizenship, including children of “alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments." 

Boardman wrote in a 35-page opinion that the new directive was “almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class."

“This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them,” Boardman, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, wrote. 

The president also signed another executive order last month that directs the State Department to issue rules and guidance to stop birth tourism, according to Axios, even as U.S. law already bans tourists from obtaining visas "for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States."