A great and confident nation that judges solely by merit welcomes immigrants with open arms. A weak, craven and cosseted nation terrified of meritocracy derides and disparages them.

The United States was born welcoming immigrants. By self-selection, they are disproportionately courageous, ambitious and entrepreneurial. A major colonial grievance against King George III justifying the American Revolution was his “obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners [and] refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.”

George Washington, in his General Orders to the Continental Army issued at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, explained that America was founded to create “an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.” He repeated in addressing newly arrived Irish immigrants that “the bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.” Washington anticipated by a century the Statue of Liberty adorned by Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Washington’s views were mainstream. Similar sentiments were voiced by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, father of the Constitution, and James Wilson, delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The constitutionally enumerated powers of Congress include establishing a “uniform rule of naturalization” but not restrictions on immigration. Both Madison and Jefferson assailed the Alien Friends Act of 1798 empowering the president to deport aliens deemed “dangerous” as unconstitutional. Not a single alien was deported under the act. It expired in 1801.

Immigration remained generally free for a century as the nation grew from a tiny acorn into a mighty oak. Xenophobia and racism then surfaced with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 fueled by labor opposition to Chinese migrants working on the transcontinental railroad.

The Founding Fathers championed open borders because they understood that America is an idea, not a race, religion or tribe. Any individual who subscribes to the Constitution; who believes in unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; who believes that justice is the end of government and of civil society; who treasures the right of individuals to march to their own drummers free of domestic predation or foreign aggression; who revels in the knowledge that they are masters of their fate, captains of their soul; and who is willing to risk and give that last full measure of devotion to defend and preserve these principals is an American.

This idea found partial expression in Washington’s 1790 letter to a Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island: “For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan and a score of biblical passages teach the duty of generosity toward strangers and foreigners. Leviticus 19: 33-34 instructs, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land … you shall treat the stranger … as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

In the 2024 presidential election, however, the American people voted against the American Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and the Statue of Liberty. They voted against immigrants, whether they entered by parole, were given temporary protected status, overstayed their visas, qualified for asylum or entered illegally through the southern border.

The incidence of crime, welfare or unemployment among immigrants is lower than that of homegrown Americans. Many immigrants pay into Social Security but receive nothing. They are not saints. Some do commit serious crimes and should be prosecuted, punished and deported accordingly.

That’s not to say the idea of America should not be protected and kept fresh and shining. Immigrants and citizens alike of all ages should be required to pass a constitutional literacy test to maintain a distinct American culture to which all alternatives should be subservient. This is our deliverance from mediocrity and indolence — our greatest national security threat.

Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and is author of “American Empire Before the Fall.” His website is www.lawofficesofbrucefein.com and X feed is @brucefeinesq.