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Yes to more legal immigrants, and faster ones at that

Thomas Friedman notes the 33 foreign-born athletes on the U.S. Olympic team and adds:

"It is amazing that with our Noah's Ark of an Olympic team doing so well 'that at the same time you have this rising call in America to restrict immigration,' said Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. 'Some people want to choke off the very thing that makes us strong and unique.' "

This isn't news to me. I wrote a blog entry titled "Immigrant Olympians" last month.

This isn't a phenomenon limited to the U.S. I noticed a number of Kenyan distance runners competing for other countries. You also might have noted that Usain Bolt was called the first man to win the 100 meters for Jamaica, not the first Jamaican to win. Native Jamaicans Linford Christie for Britain and Donovan Bailey for Canada were earlier winners.

But let's define what we're talking about. Foreign-born athletes must be naturalized U.S. citizens in order to compete on the U.S. Olympic team. Illegal immigrants are not eligible.

I don't know of many Americans trying to "choke off" legal immigration.

I'm not. Keep them coming; in fact, we could take a lot more if we could stem the flow of illegals.

All the better if we can bring in people with special talents and training.

Frankly, our foreign-born distance runners were a big disappointment. Surely, we can find faster Kenyans.

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Posted by Doug Clark on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 3:00 am

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Andrew Brod (imported)

August 26, 2008 - 9:34 am EDT

Doug, I agree with everything in your post except "we could take a lot more [legal immigrants] if we could stem the flow of illegals." You make it sound like we're at capacity, bursting at the seams, but there's no real evidence of that. Opposing illegal immigration makes sense, but it can be done without saying silly things like this.

LG (imported)

August 26, 2008 - 9:47 am EDT

Just like it says on the Statue of Liberty: give us your tired, your poor, your under-four-minute-milers. :) Really, I think this is an issue that is artificially divisive -- most people who are not on either fringe agree that there is value in immigration, and that the system needs fixing.

Doug (imported)

August 26, 2008 - 10:08 am EDT

I don't know, Andy. There's increasing concern that our rapid population growth is putting a strain on our resources, naturally and otherwise.

http://www.capwiz.com/ncjustice/attachments/3_BTC_Brief_Population_Chang...

Lisa,

I wouldn't include sprinters, either. Usain Bolt would look great in red, white and blue.

Doug (imported)

August 26, 2008 - 10:10 am EDT

Lisa,

I wouldn't exclude sprinters, either. I'd like to see Usain Bolt in red, white and blue.

Andy,

There seem to be increasing concern about the impact of rapid population growth on our resources:

http://www.capwiz.com/ncjustice/attachments/3_BTC_Brief_Population_Chang...

Andrew Brod (imported)

August 26, 2008 - 11:04 am EDT

Doug, that report claims that N.C.'s increasing population is creating demands for new public investments, and of course that's true. But that'd be equally true for a less populated state. I mean, it's true for all states. That's not the same as saying that we're at capacity and can only make room for legal immigrants by getting rid of some illegal ones.