Immigrants are what made America great

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Opinion

NEW YORK, Feb 23, 2026 (IPS) – Trump’s immigration policy is destroying the greatness of America. Immigrants are the backbone of America’s greatness: they boost its economy, enrich its culture, and promote its global leadership. However, under the guise of Making America Great Again, Trump’s racist and exclusionary policies are dismantling that same foundation, stifling innovation, and tarnishing the nation’s moral standing.

To understand the magnitude and importance of immigrants to the United States, and the need for continued immigration, the following clearly shows how deeply they sustain our workforce, drive innovation, and ensure America’s competitive advantage on the global stage.

The current state of immigration

More than 1 million farmworkers in the United States are undocumented, including approximately 40 percent of farmworkers. Immigrants make up about 70 percent of all American farmworkers, making them indispensable to the agricultural workforce and underscoring how dependent American food production is on this workforce.

We are already witnessing the impacts of the immigration crackdown on the American agricultural industry. In California’s Central Valley, most farmworkers stopped showing up after intense ICE raids in July 2025, leaving crops rotting in the fields due to a lack of available workers. This has resulted in substantial financial losses, food waste, reduced farm income and increased food prices.

Beyond agriculture, immigrants from Latin America and other regions are strongly represented in construction, hospitality, and food processing; They represent approximately 33 percent of meat processing and more than 80 percent of food manufacturing workers.

In the leisure and hospitality sector, immigrants represent approximately 18 percent of workers; In traveler accommodations (i.e. hotels) alone, more than 30 percent of workers are immigrants.

STEM Workforce

According to the National Science Foundation, foreign-born workers make up about 22 percent of the U.S. STEM workforce. Among science and engineering occupations with doctorates, about 43 percent are foreign-born; in the doctoral-level fields of computer science and mathematics, this proportion exceeds 55 percent.

About 30 percent of full-time science and engineering faculty at American universities are foreign-born and are disproportionately present at research-intensive institutions.

Denying admission to scientists from countries such as India, China, Mexico and Argentina would result in a severe talent shortage in key STEM fields. Additionally, inventors and entrepreneurs represent a disproportionately large share of U.S. patents, high-growth startups, and STEM workers with advanced degrees.

Therefore, losing foreign-born scholars would undermine research, reduce innovation, slow scientific progress, and erode America’s technological and economic competitiveness.

Research on immigrant entrepreneurship indicates that immigrants are vastly overrepresented among founders of new companies, including high-tech and “unicorn” startups, amplifying the long-term damage that restrictive policies toward non-European scientists would inflict.

Immigrants in the US military

In 2017, about 190,000 foreign-born people were on active duty, representing about 4.5 percent of all active duty service members. As of 2024, approximately 8,000 non-citizens enlist each year. In 2022, there were about 731,000 foreign-born veterans, about 4.5 percent of the total veteran population.

Historically and today, foreign-born soldiers have played key roles in every major American conflict, dating back to the Revolutionary War, and immigrants have received more than 20 percent of all Medals of Honor, underscoring the depth of their contribution to national defense.

Reagan’s tribute to immigrants

Perhaps no one could express the vital importance of immigrants to America and how they made America the land of opportunity that embodied the very promise that has made America exceptional, as President Reagan did in his final address to the nation:

“Since this is the last speech I will give as president, I think it is appropriate to leave a final thought, an observation about a country I love. It was best expressed in a letter I received recently. A man wrote to me and said: ‘You can go live in France, but you cannot become French. You can go live in Germany, Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become German, Turkish or Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come live in the United States and become an American.’

“Yes, Lady Liberty’s torch symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the covenant with our parents, our grandparents and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it is the great life force of each generation of new Americans that ensures that America’s triumph will continue unmatched into the next century and beyond. Other countries may try to compete with us, but in a vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that attracts the people of the world. world, no country in the world. Earth approaches him.

“This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, uniquely among nations, we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world. And in doing so, we continually renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stagnant past, here in America, we bring dreams to life. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow.

“Thanks to each wave of newcomers to this land of opportunity, we are a nation always young, always full of energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always taking the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, we would soon lose our leadership in the world.”

How do we get from President Reagan’s recognition of the nobility of immigrants to Trump’s dehumanizing claim that “they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats… they’re eating… they’re eating the pets…” In that stark descent, we see the horrific moral cost of abandoning the truth for political expediency.

Immigrants have been the lifeblood of the American experiment. Closing our door to immigrants is closing the door to the very engine of American vitality. If we open our borders and welcome everyone, regardless of ethnicity, race or faith, we unleash our greatest strength: a nation reborn, limitless in its ability to dream and achieve the impossible.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

IPS UN Office