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America’s 'friends door'

Is America's 'friends door' open? Do we want the thousands of migrant children pouring into the US to stay? Maybe we should. Maybe they can be great Americans.

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Eric Gay/AP
A woman makes a sign as protesters gather outside the Mexican Consulate in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.
  • By John Feehery Guest blogger

I have a friend who likes to say that his friends door is closed, meaning that he is too old to meet new friends.

His point is that you only have a finite number of very good friends and he has reached his quota.

I have a different view. My friends door is always open. I like to meet new people because I tend to learn a lot from their experiences and views.

I guess that’s why I am a proponent of more immigration. I don’t see most folks who come to America as a potential enemy. I see them as a possible friend. And from my perspective, new immigrants add so much to this country. New ideas, new energy, new experiences, new talent.

Immigrants built America and made it great. I like to focus on the Irish because I am Irish, but this country wasn’t just built by the Irish. Jews, Italians, Iranians, Filipinos, Chinese, Africans, Spanish, Germans, Russians, Polish, and the list goes on.

Every ethnic group has made an indelible and irreversible impression on this country, and in the long run, it has all been good.

I wholeheartedly agree with George Will when he said this on Fox News Sunday.

My view is that we have to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America. You’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans’.

Mr. Will said the country has more than enough space to accommodate the children, many of whom have made dangerous journeys from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these 8-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous.

Will is right, and it about time somebody had the guts to say it.

America’s friends door should remain open. We need all the friends we can get.

John Feehery publishes his Feehery Theory blog at http://www.thefeeherytheory.com/.

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