> I've long been embarrassed that US immigration law so often errs on the side of xenophobia and cruelty.
That's the effect of being the single most desirable target for immigrants. If US immigration laws were any more lenient, it would be the most populous country on Earth already, way ahead of India and China.
Your understanding seems to be based completely off the agitprop the media passes off as "news" and the politicians push for donations. Provoking fear and anger is the preferred way to capture your attention. It's time to get out of the echo chamber and stop falling for it.
While these groups are certainly present, they are a such a small tiny fraction of a percent, that you can live a happy life without seeing or worrying about them.
I lived in a small town that was known for white supremacy and in practice most people there could care less.
It remains to be seen if this is the beginning of a new century of US dominance thanks to the US's relatively good demographics or if the iceberg has hit the titanic and we don't know it yet. Your reasoning may contribute to convincing some top talent to skip the US but my bet is that if the economic winds change due to an empire in decline then those scenarios you listed become magnified.
I meant "desirable" as in "there are many millions of people trying to get there, every year". Some of those people even risk their lives for it. How they are treated after they get there is a completely separate topic.
There's a pretty wide range of hostility to outsiders, and the U.S. is not in the bottom half. The U.S. is basically embarrassing compared to...Canada, and maybe some smaller English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. But compared to Russia, or Qatar, or even relatively developed countries like France and Japan, the U.S. is paradise for immigrants.
That's the effect of being the single most desirable target for immigrants. If US immigration laws were any more lenient, it would be the most populous country on Earth already, way ahead of India and China.