Vice President JD Vance just dropped a major policy bomb, officially stating that the U.S. has to “get the overall numbers way, way down” when it comes to legal immigration. He made it crystal clear that his opposition isn’t just about border security, but about drastically reducing the number of people who play by the rules and enter the country legally.
You’re probably used to hearing politicians crack down hard on illegal border crossings, but this is a completely different ballgame. He recently fielded questions at a Turning Point USA event and doubled down on comments he made earlier this year about how new arrivals. We’re talking about anyone coming from anywhere else, somehow negatively affecting “social solidarity” and “social cohesion,” according to MSNBC.
His principal concern, he says, is that we haven’t fully built “a sense of common identity” in response to recent arrivals. Until we do that, he argues, “you’ve got to be careful about any additional immigration, in my view.” The anti-immigrant rhetoric really boiled over when he rejected the whole idea of the American melting pot in a recent podcast interview. This isn’t just about controlling the border; it’s about what your neighborhood looks like, and frankly, what he thinks it should look like.
The United States shouldn’t be a melting pot, according to JD Vance
JD Vance said that “It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” He went on to call the fact that the immigration system has “actually promoted that division is a real, real disgrace.” It sounds like he wants to bring back sundown towns.
This line, in particular, has caused an absolute firestorm, and to be fair, you can see why. Kevin Kruse, a historian over at Princeton University, noted that this is “exactly the same argument—and, in parts, even the same language—that segregationists advanced,” and that’s a comparison that feels like night and day from the standard border hawk talking points we’re used to hearing. It moves the argument from a straightforward national security or economic issue to one centered on culture and identity.
It’s about who you “have something in common with,” and when you frame it like that, it sounds like he’s advocating for a “whiter stew” instead of a true, diverse American melting pot. Vance’s whole rationale for demanding a much faster overall reduction in numbers boils down to two main justifications: the supposed fragility of the country’s social fabric and economic pressure on American workers.
He argues that allowing around a million legal immigrants a year means that “the evidence is pretty clear that a lot of those immigrants are actually undercutting the wages of American workers.” While he didn’t offer a firm number when pressed on what the “optimal” level would be, he just stated it’s “far less than what we’ve been accepting.” It sounds like a real segregationist’s mindset to me.
