RUSH: We have from Ohio, I guess it’s Delia, and she is 13 years old. Hi, Delia. Welcome to our program.

CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh. Thank you for having me.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: So I attend a Catholic school in Strongsville, Ohio, and every Friday we have a current event topic, and we pick a side, and we debate about it. It usually ends up being political. So this week our topic is whether or not it should be easier for immigrants to become U.S. citizens. And I was looking through any website I could to find credible information. But it seemed helpless because the only things I could find were opinionated essays from CNN from 2010. So I was wondering if you could help me with this problem?

RUSH: Well, I could tell you what I think about your question. Could I ask you a question first?

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: How is it you’re not in school today? I mean, it’s 1:30 in the afternoon.

CALLER: I knew that was gonna come up. I’m sick today.

RUSH: Ah, I didn’t get away with that very much. I tried. Well, I hope you’re not too sick. You sound good.

CALLER: Yeah. I’ve been sick for about a month. I’ve still been going to school, but today was just really bad.

RUSH: But you are gonna go tomorrow and you’re gonna participate in the question?

CALLER: Oh, yes.

RUSH: Have you been given a side to take in this, or can you take any side you want based on what you really think? Or are you supposed to research this and find out somebody else’s opinion? What is your assignment here, if there is one?

CALLER: So we’re supposed to pick a side and we’re supposed to get statistics about it, but I don’t understand how I’m supposed to get statistics for this topic, because there’s nothing really to get, except what the American people think about it.

RUSH: Well, in researching — this is a problem, I think, with the internet in general, is finding untainted, you know, just straight objective news. Now, one of the places I would suggest — and I don’t have the web address, but you might try U.S. government websites looking for data on immigration and citizenship just to find out what the numbers are — and we’re talking legal here — how many people are admitted into the country in an average annual basis and what do they have to do to become citizens. Are there visas involved, can they come here for a few years in advance of citizenship, and, if so, on what kind of visas?

It can get pretty complicated. I can give you the overall theory of immigration that has always governed the subject in the United States. And, in a nutshell, when you attach the question, “Should it be difficult to become a citizen,” yeah, it should be. And it’s not overly hard as it is now, but it should require some commitment, because the United States — and this is probably what you’re gonna have trouble finding on the web. I’m giving you opinion, but it really isn’t. It’s opinion based on my knowledge of the founding of the country and how the country was intended to be and what it became. And there’s no other country like this in the world.

There is no country in the world like the United States, not even free Western democracies. We are the only country in the world with a Constitution that limits the government, that provides for the primacy of the citizen over government. We do not have a Constitution that limits what people can do. We have a Constitution that limits the government. That had never been done before in the history of the world.

Most people, Delia, even today, most people alive today live under some form of dictatorship or tyranny and have nowhere near the freedoms that we in the United States have. They don’t have anywhere near economic freedom and liberty or prosperity that we have, which is why we’re such a targeted destination for people. We stand out.

And it’s precisely because this country was founded on the basis that human freedom and human liberty and the human mind unfettered lead to exceptionalism and greatness. Not that we’re better than any other people on the earth, but because we have fewer restraints and restrictions on us, that we are freer to reach our potential as individuals and as a population.

Well, this led to the establishment of a distinct American culture. And, by culture, I mean, rules and regulations and morality by which the citizens of America live. And this culture was itself rooted in the premise of individual liberty where you could pursue happiness while living your life unafraid of what you think, unafraid of what you say, unafraid of where you go because your government does not have the power to penalize you for it.

So this kind of unshackling of the human being led to untold innovation and progress, economic prosperity. And our population growth — we purchased Louisiana Purchase and won some territories — the population growth of this country coupled with that unique, never before seen in the world freedom and liberty unleashed a population like the world had never seen.

Read all of this excellent article here.