Andrew Sullivan raises a common argument re. the current immigration debate, inspired by a quote by Steve Sailer (ewww):

(N)ot enough attention has been paid to the altogether welcome move in the current immigration bill to put brains and talent before family connections in determining who gets to become an American. It’s long overdue.

It’s not long overdue, and it’s a terrible idea. Immigration policy should be set with an eye toward the future, not the immediate present. Sure, brainy Mexicans coming here for advanced careers in engineering and software development would probably provide a boon to our current economy and would most likely have a slightly easier time assimilating to American civic life. But what about the next generation, their sons and daughters?

It isn’t too controversial to note that children raised in stable, two-parent homes have a much easier time assimilating to life as US citizens, no matter how far back their American family trees may reach. This is even more so the case for the sons and daughters of recent immigrants—strong family unity produces strong American kids. Any first generation Americans coming of age in broken immigrant families (simply because their mothers or fathers or supportive grandparents weren’t “brainy” enough to make the cut) will have a much harder time developing into prosperous US citizens (attending American schools, becoming productive in American jobs) than would children born into thriving, uninterrupted families.

Preference for immigrant brains over family unity is short-sighted and wrong-headed; it’s the cultural and civic well being of the second, third, fourth and fifth generations we should be concerning ourselves with, and for those folks it’s a strong family structure, not a brainy skillset, that is the biggest factor in their early growth as productive Americans.