These Days Before the Vote: "He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither..."

Whitewater, Wis. — Today’s entry this Saturday evening continues These Days Before the Vote, a series addressing each day before the November election a principle or position on which our liberal democratic tradition rests.

Consider the Declaration’s charge against the British monarch: “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither...” For the Patriots (those who were then, not those who claim to be now), Britain's king obstructed naturalization, discouraged migration, and restricted access to land. America was growing and the Crown sought to inhibit that growth. Britain restricted western settlement in 1763 and later curtailed the colonies' naturalization powers in 1773. See Andrew M. Baxter & Alex Nowrasteh, A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day, Cato Institute, Policy Analysis No. 919, at 2–3, Aug. 3, 2021.

There has been no president in our lifetimes so proudly and avowedly nativist. The simple truths about Donald J. Trump: a dull man who imagines himself sharp, an ignorant man who imagines himself knowledgeable, and yet for it all a man who imagines himself naturally superior to others. There may be no man in America who imagines himself — falsely yet completely — superior to others by ethnicity alone.

On the first day of his second term, perhaps even before engorging himself or relieving himself thereafter, Trump issued Executive Order 14163, suspending refugee entry through the United States Refugee Admissions Program beginning January 27, 2025, and suspending decisions on refugee-status applications. His
administration defended these restrictions on the specious grounds of public safety, national security, assimilation, and public resources. Section 1 expressly identified my own small college town, Whitewater, Wisconsin, as an implied target of his nativist ire. See Exec. Order No. 14,163, §§ 1–3 (Jan. 20, 2025).

Having lived in this beautiful city for decades, walked its streets, cycled its pathways, and traveled its roads, there has never once been a time when I felt unsafe from any immigrant who arrived in our town (or anyone else). Trump's Whitewater-as-a-dystopia was Trump's Whitewater-as-a-nativist lie — not his first lie, and surely not his last.

What of this order from Trump? Unsurprisingly, it has proved to be an order against people of color, while encouraging white immigration. On May 21, 2026, Trump increased the fiscal year 2026 refugee ceiling from 7,500 to 17,500, allocating the additional admissions to Afrikaners from South Africa. The fiscal year 2027 determination retained a 17,500 ceiling, primarily allocated to Afrikaners, and expressly preserved the January order’s restrictions. See Presidential Determination No. 2026-14 (May 21, 2026).

The case in favor of immigration is both moral and practical. See Ilya Somin, David Boaz on Immigration ('Immigration restrictions are among the greatest threats to liberty in America, and many other nations'), Cato Institute, June 5, 2025. Immigration restrictions are both expressly and implicitly a threat to the Declaration's commitment to liberty and equal human rights.

Immigrants bring to America those who are simultaneously workers, consumers, and taxpayers. Immigration increases our economic output. See Tara Watson, The Impact of Immigrants on the US Economy, Brookings Institution, March 30, 2026. Reducing immigration weakens our economy. See Wendy Edelberg, Stan Veuger, and Tara Watson, Macroeconomic Implications of Immigration Flows in 2025 and 2026: January 2026 Update, Brookings Institution, January 13, 2026. Immigrants and native-born workers often complement each other. Removing immigrant workers harms native-born workers who rely on them. See Michael A. Clemens, Trump’s Proposed Mass Deportations Would Backfire on US Workers, Peterson Institute for International Economics, March 6, 2024.

Immigration strengthens a society by advancing liberty, free labor, industry, consumption, and social renewal.