This is a reminder to your letter writer last week. It is true, the U.S. has seldom, if ever, lived up to its ideals. They are high for a reason—to make us stretch to reach them. The incident he cites in the 1930s is shameful, a stain on our country that we will never erase. Having made it then is no excuse to make another error like it now. It is definitely in our national interest to welcome people who are being oppressed in their country, because it is in humanity’s interest. Ronald Reagan called us the “shining city on the hill.” Inhumanity tarnishes ...