The United States is being engulfed by the greatest wave of immigration it has ever faced. The latest immigrants are different from those who came before. These newcomers are less educated, less skilled, more prone to trouble with the law, less inclined to share American culture and values, and altogether less likely to become Americans in name or spirit.

Brimelow believes that we cannot continue to admit millions of legal and illegal immigrants if we wish to maintain our standard of living and our national identity. Unless we restore immigration to its more traditional role, he says, the United States risks being turned into an alien nation.

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According to Brimelow, our problems began with the enactment of the 1965 Immigration Act, a well-meant reform that has gone demonstrably wrong. Nobody anticipated that it would rob us of the power to determine who can and cannot enter our national family and that it would trigger an ethnic and racial transformation without precedent in history. It was an astonishing social experiment launched with no particular reason to expect success.

As Brimelow points out, there is no example of a multicultural society that has lasted; many have disintegrated into racial and linguistic enclaves.

Brimelow explodes all the myths about immigration. He explains why the current flood of immigrants does not benefit the economy. He shows how they are a drain on our social infrastructure and the environment. Conventional wisdom dictates that it is un-American to be against immigration, but we have repeatedly restricted immigration throughout our history. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson were all wary of letting in too many newcomers.

The United States is a lifeboat. Taking in so many unskilled workers and so many millions with no desire to share our American identity, we risk capsizing and sinking. Peter Brimelow's persuasive call for reform boldly defines one of the most important and sensitive issues of the decade.