Editor's Note: Assimilation or Disintegration? A Look at America’s Uncertain Future

By Wayne Lutton, Ph.D.
Volume 29, Number 4 (Summer 2019)
Issue theme: "Whatever Happened to Assimilation? - America's Uncertain Future"


As we were going to press, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Aurora, Colorado (just outside of Denver). They tore down the U.S. flag flying at this federal agency where illegal aliens are being held, and replaced it with the Mexican flag. “Abolish ICE” was spray painted by other demonstrators. As Gloria Precht, one of the many critical commentators posted at DenverCBS4, wrote, “This is why you need to leave…replacing the U.S. flag with the Mexican flag shows that you are not willing to assimilate into our country and follow our laws.” Vincent Ardizzone also commented, “So, let me get this straight. They wave the flag of the country they’re seeking asylum from?”

Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis loudly protested against plans by the Trump Administration to deport illegals facing deportation orders that had been planned for Denver and nine other cities, starting on July 14. Gov. Polis charged that these efforts to finally enforce the law represented “another failure of leadership”…and was “creating uncertainty and fear.” One might suggest that criminals should be made to feel “uncertainty and fear” and encouraged to stop their illegal activity. In the case of illegal aliens, this would include leaving this country and going home to their native lands [denver.cbslocal.com/2019/07/ice-immigration-raids].

In our Nation’s Capital, a Sanctuary City, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) issued statements and a video, in eight languages (Arabic, Amharic, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese, French, and Spanish), reiterating that D.C. Metropolitan Police officers “are prohibited from asking about residency/immigration status. Our immigrant community is a vital part of the fabric of our city…MPD has a long-standing policy that prohibits police officers from asking about citizenship or residency status to determine whether an individual is undocumented” [wtop.com/dc/ahead-of-ice-raids-police-address-dcs-immigrant-community].

In this issue of The Social Contract, our contributors review how well our new arrivals, legal and illegal, are assimilating to the host nation. Open Borders and Multiculturalism conflict with what used to be taken for granted, namely, that immigrants would, over time, become Americanized. As James Kirkpatrick writes on page 46, “Yet the real question is whether America is going to be a country at all. If America is to be a country, there need to be incentives in place for people to identify as Americans. These include making English the official language, establishing equal treatment under the law, and imposing an immigration moratorium to facilitate assimilation.”

There is a lot to reflect on here. We encourage you to share the contents with your own contacts.

About the author

Wayne Lutton is editor of  The Social Contract.