I read Ed Powell's 69 page immigration article. Great work! Thanks for writing it. I'll link it in my next newsletter.
I agree with the general idea about free will: any individual can adopt Western values, but as a practical matter, most won't (especially in the wrong circumstances like living in a large group of non-Americans). And there's some good comments on multiculturalism.
I've got something to add: the most important factor for assimilation is the philosophical ideas of our country's leaders.
If you put 1000 clones of Ayn Rand into high positions in our society, we'd be able to assimilate a lot more people a lot more quickly! No one could stand up to the Ayn Rands in debate. Having great communicators with great ideas all over the place would make a massive difference – especially for philosophical education which is what the world most needs (as Ayn Rand told us).
If we had dozens of Ayn Rands in the house, the senate, the cabinet, the supreme court, etc, think about how different the world would be. People with clear ideas who don't equivocate. Even our best politicians often hedge and equivocate when they should be making principled speeches which are even more "extreme" than Trump's Mexican rapists speech – which was more of a regular speech with a few ideas from Adios America with one comment the media got mad about. Imagine if you replace a few ideas from Adios America with the whole speech being given by someone with better ideas than Coulter. And repeat then in hundreds of communications from CEOs, scientists, professors, senators, etc...
Arguing about immigration will buy us time, and that's good. But what we really need is a few hundred thinkers of Ayn Rand's caliber. That'd be an unstoppable force which could even assimilate millions of Mexicans. Come up with the right arguments and you can lead Americans to stand up for their values and share their values – and with e.g. a hundred million Americans helping with assimilation (there are still that many Americans who could be reached by rational ideas) then it would get done. Assimilation is failing most of all because of the cultural relativism, moral cowardice and anti-Americanism of Americans, which their leaders in all fields have been pushing on them (thankfully over 50 million used their own independent judgement and voted Trump). Get the voices of hundreds of real intellectuals like Ayn Rand and they will lead our culture because their enemies are so weak, and then the reinvigorated American people will be confident in their values and spread their culture. We could convert people if we were actually trying to, but even Christianity isn't very proselytizing anymore!
This would be hard. One Ayn Rand wouldn't be enough. But it's what we need to aim for. Try to become great yourself, and secondarily help the very best people to be even better. (Ayn Rand complained that "nobody builds sanctuaries for the best of the human species"– especially for bright young people.) Philosophical education – especially of some great thinkers (and especially self-education) – is what will determine the fate of the world.
(And, btw, please stay out of the universities. Don't get a worthless philosophy degree in order to impress people with your credentials. Don't subject yourself to years of torture and try to survive it. Today's universities have no values to offer in the field of philosophy – and not really so much in the sciences either.)
Ayn Rand said what set her apart is intellectual honesty. You don't have to be born a genius. You don't need the right genes. You can determine your own fate, and there's nothing stopping you from being great like her. It'd make your own life way better, and if a few hundred people do it, that would be enough to save the world.