President of MIT on value of foreign students and immigrants.

The president of MIT writes in The New York Times today, “I first came to America in 1974 from Venezuela, where my parents finally settled as refugees from Hitler’s Europe. I found a culture of openness, boldness, ingenuity and meritocracy — a culture that taught me that in coming to America I had truly come home. Our competitors openly envy our capacity to welcome and adopt talent from everywhere. I fear likely that we will recognize this strategic U.S. strength only once it is lost.”

As the child of a refugee from Hitler’s Europe, I can only enthusiastically endorse every last word of this statement. It would be an awful tragedy if we lost this feature of our society.