33¾ years ago I was a freshman and I remember the incoming class guide book (the “pig” book) had photos of each member of the class and their secondary school. A few of them were from L’ecole Marie Louise in Saigon. The terror they faced as their country collapsed and the smug assumption of the American leftists that the Vietnamese would go home to build the revoloution I will not forget seeing. Some years later the Vietnamese girlfriend I had who was adopted by an American officer convinced me of the infinite goodness and welcome that is at the heart of this country.

Why was that different than people coming now from Mexico or Algeria? Partly because of what they are fleeing and partly because of what they bring. The refugees from Communism or Nazism obviously brought themselves. They were Germans or Hungarians or Chinese or Vietnamese but at their core they all came to America and did not believe they were bringing their homes with them. The current economic refugees, and even when they are coming from dictatorships in dar as Islam, their motivations are fundamentally economic, are not seeking to shed the culture of authoritarianism to join the West.