"The most conspicuous failure of high-immigration globalism"

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Public reporting states the killer in the terrorist attack was born in Strasbourg, France. So before you make any more despicable statements that use the deaths of innocent people for your own purposes, get your facts straight.#WednesdayWisdom https://t.co/izMIFUwhFU

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 12, 2018

Unfortunately, the Strasbourg attack makes an NR piece I wrote a year and a half ago relevant again:

Western-born Muslim terrorists are actually the most conspicuous failure of high-immigration globalism. 

For supporters of mass immigration on both sides of the Atlantic, the way to address Muslim terrorism is to forget the “Muslim” part and focus on the “terrorism” part. Carefully vet incoming immigrants to ensure they have no ties to terrorist groups, then let immersion in Western culture remove any latent sympathy for radicalism. Unfortunately, terrorism committed by Western-born Muslims discredits that approach. Such terrorists could never have been “vetted,” since they are not immigrants, and assimilation has obviously not worked for them. In fact, they are so disaffected, so alienated from Western culture, that they wish to kill their fellow citizens. 

The immigration scholar Peter Skerry has observed that “assimilation is not a simple linear progression, but one that moves back and forth across the generations.” As the West accepts more Muslim immigrants, how much risk will we face from a “de-assimilated” second generation? That is a question that many would prefer not to confront. It would require acknowledging that Muslim immigration per se has fostered a small but dangerous Islamic terrorist movement within the West itself. It would also require acknowledging that the world’s peoples are not interchangeable parts that can be scattered around the globe without long-term consequences. For that reason, Western-born Muslim terrorists are like a glitch in the Matrix — a dose of reality that immigration advocates cannot explain away. 

Read the whole thing.

The most amazing turnaround

U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 and then began a slow, decades-long decline. Like most people, I assumed the decline would continue indefinitely. It seemed we had extracted most of the oil that was cost-effective to extract, and now other countries could produce oil more cheaply. In 2008, no one was expecting a sudden recovery. Well, let me re-phrase that: I wasn't expecting a recovery, and if energy industry experts were bullish at the time, their optimism didn't trickle down to the masses. Nevertheless, U.S. oil production not only increased after 2008 but reached record levels -- all in just ten years! This is an amazing accomplishment for the energy industry and one of the U.S. economy's great success stories.

Most people have heard about fracking, horizontal drilling, the North Dakota boom, and so on. But how many people are aware that the overall production increase has been this steep?

On the new public charge rule

As I discussed here last spring, the Trump Administration has proposed a new rule to enforce the statutory ban on admitting any alien who is "likely to become a public charge." The new definition of public charge will be "an alien who receives one or more public benefits." That replaces the old interpretation of a public charge as someone who "primarily" relies on certain cash handouts or long-term care. In my opinion, the new rule is clearly an improvement, but it doesn't go far enough. Here are the five key points from the formal comment I submitted:

1. Immigrant welfare use is high. 

2. The public charge law is rarely enforced. 

3. Any receipt of means-tested anti-poverty benefits by immigrants or their dependents should count toward the public charge determination. 

4. Immigrants without at least some college should bear a heavy burden in proving they will not become public charges. Having a job is not enough. 

5. Case-by-case discretionary power should be limited.

Please read the whole thing for the details. The comment period is open until December 10.

Also, please enjoy this video of me talking about the problem of immigrant welfare use.