Immigrants Are What Made America Nice — International Points
NEW YORK, February 23 (IPS) – Trump’s immigration coverage is destroying America’s greatness Immigrants are the spine of America’s greatness— powering its financial system, enriching its tradition, and advancing its world management. But below the guise of constructing America nice once more, Trump’s exclusionary, racist insurance policies are dismantling that very basis, stifling innovation and tarnishing the nation’s ethical standing.
To know the magnitude and significance of immigrants within the US, and the necessity for continued immigration, the next clearly reveals how deeply they maintain our workforce, drive innovation, and safe America’s aggressive edge on the worldwide stage.
The Present State of Immigration
Over 1 million farmworkers in america are undocumented, together with roughly 40 p.c of crop farmworkers. Immigrants account for roughly 70 p.c of all US farmworkers, making them indispensable to the agricultural labor power and underscoring how dependent American meals manufacturing is on this workforce.
We’re already witnessing the impacts of immigration crackdowns on the US farm business. In California’s Central Valley, a majority of farmworkers stopped exhibiting up after intensive ICE raids in July 2025, leaving crops rotting within the fields as a result of an absence of accessible staff. This has resulted in substantial monetary losses, meals waste, decreased farm revenues, and rising meals costs.
Past agriculture, immigrants from Latin America and different areas are closely represented in development, hospitality, and meals processing; they account for roughly 33 p.c of meat processing and over 80 p.c of meals manufacturing staff.
Within the leisure and hospitality sector, immigrants account for roughly 18 p.c of staff; in traveler lodging (i.e., accommodations) alone, over 30 p.c of staff are immigrants.
STEM Workforce
Based on the Nationwide Science Basis, foreign-born staff account for roughly 22 p.c of the US’ STEM workforce. Amongst science and engineering occupations with doctorates, about 43 p.c are foreign-born; within the doctorate-level fields of laptop and mathematical sciences, this share exceeds 55 p.c.
Roughly 30 p.c of full-time science and engineering school at US universities are foreign-born, disproportionately current at research-intensive establishments.
Denying admission of scientists from nations equivalent to India and China, Mexico and Argentina would lead to critical expertise shortages in key STEM fields. Furthermore, inventors and entrepreneurs account for a disproportionately massive share of US patents, high-growth startups, and advanced-degree STEM staff.
Thus, dropping foreign-born students would undermine analysis, cut back innovation, sluggish scientific progress, and erode US technological and financial competitiveness.
Analysis on immigrant entrepreneurship signifies that immigrants are closely overrepresented amongst founders of latest companies, together with high-tech companies and “unicorn” startups, which amplifies the long-term injury that restrictive insurance policies towards non-European scientists would inflict.
Immigrants within the US army
In 2017, about 190,000 foreign-born people had been on lively responsibility, representing roughly 4.5 p.c of all active-duty service members. As of 2024, roughly 8,000 non-citizens enlist annually. As of 2022, there have been about 731,000 foreign-born veterans—round 4.5 p.c of the full veteran inhabitants.
Traditionally and in the present day, foreign-born troopers have performed key roles in each main US battle, courting again to the Revolutionary Battle, and mmigrants have obtained greater than 20 p.c of all Medals of Honor, underscoring the depth of their contribution to nationwide protection.
Reagan’s Honoring of Immigrants
Maybe nobody might categorical the very important significance of immigrants to the US, and the way they made America the land of alternative that embodied the very promise that has made America distinctive, like President Reagan in his closing speech to the nation:
“Since that is the final speech that I’ll give as president, I feel it’s becoming to go away one closing thought, an remark a couple of nation which I really like. It was greatest said in a letter I obtained just lately. A person wrote me and stated: ‘You possibly can go to reside in France, however you can’t turn out to be a Frenchman. You possibly can go to reside in Germany, Turkey, or Japan, however you can’t turn out to be a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. However anybody, from any nook of the Earth, can come to reside in America and turn out to be an American.’
“Sure, the torch of Girl Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our dad and mom, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It’s that girl who offers us our nice and particular place on the planet. For it’s the nice life power of every era of latest Individuals that assure that America’s triumph shall proceed unsurpassed into the subsequent century and past. Different nations might search to compete with us, however in a single very important space, as a beacon of freedom and alternative that pulls the folks of the world, no nation on Earth comes shut.
“This, I imagine, is likely one of the most essential sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world as a result of, distinctive amongst nations, we draw our folks—our power—from each nation and each nook of the world. And by doing so, we repeatedly renew and enrich our nation. Whereas different nations cling to the stale previous, right here in America, we breathe life into goals. We create the longer term, and the world follows us into tomorrow.
“Thanks to every wave of latest arrivals to this land of alternative, we’re a nation eternally younger, eternally bursting with vitality and new concepts, and at all times on the innovative, at all times main the world to the subsequent frontier. This high quality is significant to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Individuals, our management on the planet would quickly be misplaced.”
How did we fall from President Reagan’s recognition of immigrants’ the Aristocracy to Trump’s dehumanizing declare that “they’re consuming the canine…they’re consuming the cats…They’re consuming—they’re consuming the pets…” In that stark descent, we see the horrific ethical value of abandoning fact for political expediency.
Immigrants have been the lifeblood of the American experiment. To shut our door to immigrants is to shut the door to the very engine of American vitality. If we open our borders, welcoming all no matter ethnicity, race or religion, we unleash our best power—a nation reborn, limitless in its capability to dream and obtain the inconceivable.
Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of worldwide relations, most just lately on the Heart for International Affairs at NYU. He taught programs on worldwide negotiation and Center Japanese research.
IPS UN Bureau
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