We Have to Be Serious About the Scale of This Challenge

There's been a lot of talk of mass amnesty for illegal aliens.

My answer is simple, and it’s final: Hell no.

But let’s be clear-eyed about the real crisis. This isn’t just about “illegal” entry.

53.3 million foreign-born people live in the United States of America—roughly 16%… pic.twitter.com/7npENPN4nr

— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) April 8, 2026

… of our population and nearly ten times the population of Missouri.

As both a raw number and a percentage of population, we are in uncharted territory. No serious nation pretends it can absorb unlimited numbers at unlimited speed without consequences for wages, schools, housing, hospitals, and the very cohesion of the republic itself. When the foreign-born share surges to levels never seen before, the pressures don’t stop at the border—they flood every community in America. They depress wages for working Americans, they overwhelm our classrooms, they strain public services paid for by citizens who played by the rules.

That is the point too many people in Washington (even some Republicans) refuse to confront. They want to reduce this debate to a legal distinction alone, as if the only problem is unlawful entry.

And yet the people responsible for this situation still talk as if any effort to reduce numbers, tighten standards, advocate for assimilation, or prioritize American citizens is somehow extreme.

It is not extreme for a nation to want order. It is not extreme for a nation to want limits. It is not extreme for a nation to insist that immigration policy serve the national interest instead of the preferences of donors, activists, and multinational employers.

America has every right to have an immigration system that is oriented toward its own people. That means stopping illegal entry, yes. But it also means ending the broader ideology of mass migration that treats record inflows as a sign of virtue and public concern as something to be silenced. If we are serious about preserving our country, we have to be serious about the scale of this challenge.