Tommy Tuberville

“Assimilate or go home,” read the sign at Senator Tommy Tuberville’s side as he held forth on the Senate floor last month about the proposed American System for Sustainable Immigration and Mass Immigration Limitations Achieved Through Imposing Oversight Nationally Act that he and Representative Andy Ogles were about to introduce (yes, that works out to ASSIMILATION). Tuberville of Alabama and Ogles of Tennessee are both media personalities more than Republican legislators, and there’s little chance of their bill becoming law, which would sharply reduce legal immigration and require would-be immigrants to be proficient in English before they arrive. But one thing Tuberville said at least merits public refutation:

This is a persistent theme in current right-wing commentary about immigration — that recent arrivals to the US aren’t working hard, aren’t following the law and generally aren’t fitting in as past generations of immigrants did. It’s also a load of hooey.