USA Today, a nation-wide newspaper in the U.S., clearly doesn’t get it. It neither understands the full meaning of Independence Day nor does it – not unlike so many of its peers – understand what it is to be an American. It seems to show only the most simplistic kindergarten understanding of big words like, “immigrant” and spends about half the article then accusing Americans of being poltroon, hypocritical knuckle-draggers.

The word “immigrant”, of course, is thrown around quite a lot these days. By those on the left, it’s used as a nearly catch-all word that’s deployed for those who immigrate legally, those who visit as tourists, students, drug dealers or as legal workers who decide without consulting the U.S. government to stay. “Immigrant” also refers to those who stow away on vessels and hop off at the first U.S. port, to those dashing across fields, over fences, and through rivers to get in, and it really matters not why they are doing so. Conveniently, the only people seemingly exempted from this group the left calls “immigrants” are those most badly in need of it – those seeking asylum from leftist regimes like Cuba or China, or less politically fashionable countries in the Caribbean or Africa. Arrive from one of those countries and chances are you’ll be sent home on the next plane as leftwing immigration lawyers and mass media look the other way.

I need not point out the liberal definition is not the legal or moral definition of immigrant. However, for those like the Mendoza brothers – Iraq war vets who had emigrated from Mexico and earned their citizenship – and members of my own and countless other families, the word aptly applies. We did it the right way by showing honor and respect for the country that would be our new homeland. We did not crash the gates and make demands of the citizens, we knocked and asked to join them. We came from all over the world, speaking a thousand tongues and bringing a thousand traditions that would meld with those of our neighbors to make what is quintessentially Americana. The American accent itself is unlike anything uttered in the homeland of its English ancestors or its English-speaking cousins around the world, but has come about through the influence of an endless and diverse supply of newcomers. To accuse Americans of being anti-immigrant is a bit like accusing Venus Williams of being anti-Tennis.

America is indeed a nation of immigrants, so Americans  understand what an immigrant is and is not; Americans are most aware of the need for compassion for refugees and the need for common sense, yet comparatively liberal controls over who strolls into the country and why. After all, America’s closest neighbor to the south is quite restrictive. Mexico’s constitution makes it a felony with prison time to enter illegally and denies all social services to visitors legal and otherwise, and Mexican guards have been known to shoot those attempting to cross its southern border with Guatemala. For those who are naturalized, the right to own property and vote are nonetheless never available. Of course the United States should never have an immigration policy so brutal and backward as this, but it is not in danger of it, either.

Americans are a generous people, even if they do not do as well in their social studies courses as they should in liberal public schools of inferior learning. However, Americans know who they are, where they have come from and quite lucidly understand that they both want and need a safe and tranquil place to live and rear children. Americans see it as perfectly legitimate, reasonable, and understand it is the most compassionate choice to require that those who wish to become Americans or live and work as resident aliens be screened for criminal backgrounds, addictive behaviors, and infectious diseases.

I am sure that the reporter for the USA Today and his liberal colleagues work inside a building with guards and other forms of security in place. That security screens those who enter for dangerous contraband and possibly also checks whether the visitor’s identity matches that of certain criminals – it certainly would if it could afford to do so. Such a policy is not seen as cruel to any thinking person, but a reasonable step for the security of all. When security denies access to anyone who is not an invited guest or a building employee with identification, shall we surmise that USA Today is anti-entrant or should we accept the fact that USA Today is only anti-illegal entrant.

In almost pro forma fashion, USA Today and its comrades in arms throw around the word “anti-immigrant” to describe Americans who oppose illegal immigration, failing as so many in mass media – an industry allegedly built on the grandiose skills of wordsmiths – in the most fundamental ability to properly use their own language. Border control is no more a mean-spirited violation of fundamental human rights than the egress policy of the USA Today’s office building. In point of fact, immigration control benefits legal immigrants and resident aliens and visitors just as much as it does citizens, because it ensures that hundreds of thousands of wanted murderers, robbers, rapists, and other thugs are not slipping across the border daily.

Does the U.S. need to revisit its immigration laws to perhaps streamline the process of immigration for those who apply lawfully? You bet. But the all-or-nothing approach of the left is not only extreme and unthinking, it is uncaring and impractical, and that is the dirty little secret USA Today can’t tell you. They can’t tell you because they obviously haven’t thought that deeply about it; if they had, they would realize how entirely intellectually dishonest and mind-numbingly desultory their understanding is. If America is made up of immigrants and Americans are bigots, then where did they get their bigotry, from the Indians or the native flowers or the trees? Are all immigrants then bigots or just the ones that fit into the self-loathing liberal narrative? And what about the place to which those immigrants’ ancestors immigrated before their descendents arrived in America? After all, not only America, but the entire world is made up of immigrants, and every sovereign state has always had an interest in allowing good ones and disallowing bad ones.  No group is eternally native to any land, nor has any group new or old ever been free of persecution. With this in mind, we should strive for a sane and sensible immigration policy rather than the utterly ignorant and disconnected one the left proffers.

America always has and will continue to be a nation of immigrants; what it should not become is a holding cell for the world’s worst criminals, deadbeats, terrorists, and other hostile foreign agents. All that Americans ask is that all who cross the border or arrive at our shores are screened and allowed passage if they are not a danger or a deadbeat. If we do not do this, there really is no point in even having border guards who screen legal travelers at ports of entry when millions much more in need of scrutiny go by completely un-noticed. It is time that we properly funnel those entering along with streamlining the applicant process so that we continue to bring in the honest and hardworking visitors and patriotic immigrants that have made us great. In so doing, we’ll keep out those who would harm them and those of us who have been here a generation or more, while making America an ever culturally richer and economically more vibrant place to live.

Now that we know what an American and an American immigrant are, it’s time we put away the rhetoric and truly fix the problem in a way that works for America and not against it.