Not Quite So Welcome Anymore

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After New York's World Trade Center is rocked by a thundering explosion, police round up a string of Arab immigrants as suspects, including an Egyptian radical who was admitted to the U.S. by mistake. Off the shore of New York's Long Island, a rusty tramp steamer called the Golden Venture runs aground, disgorging nearly 300 frightened Chinese trying to enter the country illegally; 10 die. Newly elected President Bill Clinton, reneging on a campaign promise, denies entry to Haitian boat people, then is blindsided by hostile public reaction when his first two choices for Attorney General turn out to have hired illegal immigrants as household help. When Texas border patrols mount a round-the-clock blockade along 20 miles of the Rio Grande, hundreds of Mexicans, many of whom commute illegally to day jobs in El Paso, angrily block traffic on a bridge between the U.S. and Mexico, chanting, "We want to work."

The incessant drumbeat of episodes like these has Americans increasingly concerned that their country is under siege and, in the popular phraseology, "has lost control of its own borders." In a study published last June, Bard College economist Dimitri Papadimitriou concluded that new laws were needed to head off "a bitter struggle between these new immigrants and disadvantaged segments of the U.S. population for increasingly scarce low- skill, low-wage jobs."

These sentiments recall a judgment voiced in a New York Times editorial: "There is a limit to our powers of assimilation, and when it is exceeded the country suffers from something very like indigestion." That observation was not made recently, however, but in May 1880, when anti-immigrant sentiment was also on the rise. Then too there was no effective limit on the number of immigrants entering the U.S. The hard fact is that when times are good, few worry about how many newcomers arrive; when times are tough, as they are now, cries of opposition invariably rise.

Many Americans are confused about whether the continuous inflow of immigrants makes the country stronger or weaker. Economic studies abound claiming that immigration spurs new businesses and new taxpayers. With no less conviction, others contend that immigrants and their children evade taxes and overburden local welfare, health and education systems. To compound the confusion, many Americans believe -- wrongly -- that more foreigners enter the country illegally than do legally. As the doubts grow, so does the potential for backlash. Polls show that almost two-thirds of Americans favor new laws to cut back on all immigrants and asylum seekers -- legal as well as illegal. Though immigration is often regarded as a single issue, some distinctions are important:

Legal immigrants. More than 1 million people are entering the U.S. legally every year. From 1983 through 1992, 8.7 million of these newcomers arrived -- the highest number in any 10-year period since 1910. A record 1.8 million were granted permanent residence in 1991. Because present law stresses family unification, these arrivals can bring over their spouses, sons and daughters: some 3.5 million are now in line to come in. Once here, they can bring in their direct relatives. As a result, there exists no visible limit to the number of legal entries.