The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration

Principles and Challenges in America

By (author) Edward J. Erler, John Marini, Thomas G. West

Not available to order

Publication date:

23 February 2007

Length of book:

178 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742580459

Working with the underlying premise that America's founding principles continue to be vital in the modern era, Erler, Marini, and West take a conservative look at immigration, one of today's most pressing political issues. Character_the capacity to live a life befitting republican citizens_is, as the Founders knew, crucial to the debate about immigration. The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration seeks to revive the issue of republican character in the current immigration debate and to elucidate the constitutional foundations of American citizenship. Published in cooperation with the Claremont Institute.
The economic, social, and cultural concerns about massive illegal immigration from Mexico have long been discussed. But rarely have we examined the massive influx in historical and legal terms of citizenship?how did the founders and their successors dealwith problems of being an American, and what are the effects of massive noncompliance with the laws of the United States? Edward J. Erler, John Marini, and Thomas G. West are to be congratulated for their sober exploration of the racial and class considerations that seem to prevent us from enforcing the very laws that we have passed...