Polgreen: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt [#immigration]

2026/01/05 Leave a comment

Good critique of Trump’s National Security Strategy view on immigration:

…Arguments in favor of migration tend to focus either on its economic benefits or its moral claim on the American psyche. But from the nation’s founding these two have been intertwined in ways both productive and confounding. Over the past year, as I’ve written about migration across the globe, I have often asked opponents of migration whether they would prefer to live in a country people flee from or flee toward. The answer, invariably, is the latter. The recent surge in support for immigration reflects, I suspect, that America’s status as the destination of choice for the world’s best minds is an intense source of pride.

It is also a source of strength. Trump clearly prefers the menacing snarl of hard power, but America’s openness to the world’s most ambitious people — and its unique ability to absorb and make use of human talent — has perhaps been its most potent form of soft power. Why try to defeat the world’s richest country when you might have the chance to join it and reap its ample rewards?

That is not the Trump administration’s way of thinking. For all the talk about abolishing D.E.I. in favor of merit, it seems to believe that for Americans to compete with the best of the world, merit must be redefined in nationalist terms, if not entirely set aside. Its National Security Strategy said so explicitly.

“Should merit be smothered, America’s historic advantages in science, technology, industry, defense and innovation will evaporate,” the document states. However, it continues, “we cannot allow meritocracy to be used as a justification to open America’s labor market to the world in the name of finding ‘global talent’ that undercuts American workers.” Trumpism seems to be seeking a form of talent autarky.

This is a radical change, and one that will surely leave the United States poorer, weaker and more isolated. I cannot help but detect in these nativist outbursts against Indian immigrants and their descendants a profound loss of confidence. The protesters repulsed by the towering Hanuman statue saw it as a threat to their culture, religion and traditions. But to me, that glittering hulk of alloyed metal symbolizes something else: the enduring magnetism of America’s promise, tarnished though it may be.

Source: One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt

Filed under Immigration, Trump administration Tagged with ,

New Trump-Miller Strategy Clashes On Immigration And Innovation

2025/12/16 Leave a comment

One of many:

The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy document appears to bear the strong influence of Stephen Miller and assumes America can gain the benefits of immigration without admitting immigrants. The document, released Dec. 5, criticizes immigration but welcomes innovation and economic growth, which immigrants contribute to, and praises merit but opposes allowing companies to hire immigrants if they are the best fit for a position. The strategy document encourages other countries to open their markets while the United States maintains tariffs to protect favored industries. It also criticizes America’s allies in Europe and minimizes the role of NATO such that a Russian government spokesperson said the strategy is “largely consistent with our vision.”

A Contradiction On Merit And U.S. Immigration Policy

The National Security Strategy document’s immigration references show the significant influence of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The document criticizes admitting even the most highly skilled individuals to the United States. 

“Competence and merit are among our greatest civilizational advantages: where the best Americans are hired, promoted, and honored, innovation and prosperity follow,” according to the strategy document. “Should merit be smothered, America’s historic advantages in science, technology, industry, defense and innovation will evaporate. The success of radical ideologies that seek to replace competence and merit with favored group status would render America unrecognizable and unable to defend itself.”

However, in a glaring contradiction, the document goes on to declare that hiring a foreign-born person, even if they are talented and the best person for the job, would be wrong. “At the same time, we cannot allow meritocracy to be used as a justification to open America’s labor market to the world in the name of finding ‘global talent’ that undercuts American workers. In our every principle and action, America and Americans must always come first.”

That sentiment is consistent with the administration’s immigration policy, which has sought to tilt the playing field against foreign nationals to prevent their hiring in the United States. (That does not mean companies won’t shift resources and hire high-skilled foreign nationals and place them in other countries.) H-1B temporary visas are often the only way for high-skilled foreign nationals to work in the United States long term. The administration has imposed a $100,000 fee on the entry of new H-1B visa holders from outside the United States, making them prohibitively expensive to hire. The Labor Department will propose a rule to raise the prevailing wage requirement with an expected aim of pricing H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants out of the U.S. labor market.

Source: New Trump-Miller Strategy Clashes On Immigration And Innovation

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