From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains.

Immigration reform is a huge issue for our country right now.

And for decades, we've heard a lot about borders, law enforcement, and amnesty.

But an issue that President Trump brought up in his new proposal last week is one that hasn't received as much attention.

To promote integration, assimilation, and national unity, future immigrants will be required to learn English and to pass a civics exam prior to admission.

Through these steps, we will deliver an immigration system that respects and even strengthens our culture, our traditions,

and our values.

President Trump is talking about assimilation, patriotic assimilation, actually.

To assimilate, according to Miriam Webster, is to take into the mind and thoroughly understand, or to absorb into the cultural tradition of a population or a group. But patriotic

assimilation is not just whether you adopt the habits of America, but whether you feel patriotic about America.

It's when you begin to understand and feel within your being,

the beliefs of America and what makes her great.

America is known as the great melting pot.

But what if we aren't melting? What if we're just staying separate?

Our expert today, Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow in Heritage's Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for

foreign policy, says that patriotic assimilation is the bond that allows America to be a nation of

immigrants. Without it, Mike says, America ceases to be a nation, becoming instead a hodgepodge

of groups. Mike, why is political assimilation such a big deal when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system?

You know, immigration always leads to angst, right?

In America and in other countries, people are always concerned about immigration.

One of the reasons for that is that people intuit that their culture is at stake.

And they want to see as a continuation of their culture, the things they like.

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