The Audacious Epigone provides more details on the lies of the civic nationalists:
The phrase “nation of immigrants” first appeared in The New York Times in 1923 and for the first time in book form in 1935. Truman, in 1952, was the first president to make use of it while in office.
Peak immigration occurred in 1890 when those born outside the US made up 14.7% of the country’s population. At its historical height, then, 1-in-7 people living in the US were immigrants in a nation now putatively said to be comprised of them.
At the time of the nation-wrecking Hart-Celler act in 1965, only 1-in-20 residents were immigrants.
Anyone who claims America is a nation of immigrants is appallingly ignorant, lying through his teeth, or both–and there’s a good chance he has to go back.
Providing more evidence in support of my statement that revisionist philo-immigrant history is a 20th century lie in support of the false claim of 19th century immigrants to be legitimate Americans. The USA is not, and never was, “a Judeo-Christian nation of immigrants”.
I can’t stress this enough. I’ve noticed that we’re already seeing less and less philo-immigrant falsehoods. And if a civic nationalist or third-generation immigrant tries to pass it off as genuine history, don’t hesitate to expose their lies and hammer them hard for it in public.
If you’re a Republican of conservative or libertarian inclination, remember that you can’t expect to win over the fleeing white Democrats if you’re just going to replace liberal lies with conservative or libertarian lies. If the historical evidence belies your dogma, you simply must give it up and replace it with the truth.