I am pro-immigration--on American terms to benefit America--but anti-illegal immigration. Those are not incompatible positions. And it is something that even liberals until recently had no problem appreciating and supporting.
Yet for the Left, I'm awful notwithstanding the fact that our ethnic makeup matters little to me if our citizens embrace the ideas that make America exceptional.
Today is a celebration of liberty. Discussing our conditions of immigration (and when that poem was added, our needs for labor were great) can be suspended for a day to rejoice in freedom, can't it?
UPDATE: Becoming an American:
It is our solemn duty, no matter how many of our compatriots fail at it, to live up to our amazing luck in being citizens of the greatest nation on Earth, one founded on the belief that individuals can be self-governing and are the bosses of their own government.
Thank you for admitting me to the privilege. Never forget your luck. Learn to live up to it.
I don't know why every American isn't grateful to be an American and proud of what we have built.