Does it matter who was the 300 millionth "American"?

Indeed, it does.

If it was a baby born to an American, that is wonderful news. If it was a baby born to an illegal alien, it means we have lost control of our borders. And as Ronald Reagan said, a country that can't control its borders isn't really a country anymore.

And if it was a Mexican who slipped over the Rio Grande in the early morning darkness of Oct. 17, it may be a harbinger of the end of America as we knew her.

If the people are not celebrating the 300 million along with the editorial writers, it is because there is a strong likelihood the individual added to our number is not an American at all, and because the extraordinary growth of the American family was not the free choice of the American people.

We have 300 million here today only because the government of the United States refuses to enforce our immigration laws and the people were misled or lied to when the Immigration Act of 1965 was passed.

Who was the chairman of the subcommittee that conducted the hearings? Edward M. Kennedy. And what did Sen. Kennedy promise? Here are his own words of four decades ago:

"(O)ur cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. ... The ethnic mix of this country will not be upset. ... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S. 500 will not inundate America with immigrants from any other country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations of Africa and Asia."

Only haters would make such assertions, Kennedy thundered. "The charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage."

How good were the senator's assurances?

Today, we have 36 million immigrants and their children here, some 90 percent from Third World nations whose peoples have never before been assimilated into a First World nation. A third, 12 million, are here in violation of our laws.

Most of those coming now are poor and uneducated, and are unable to speak our language. Some do not wish to become Americans. But they are sending our crime, poverty and disease rates skyward, and pulling U.S. academic scores down toward Third World levels.

But what is most significant about these deep and irreversible alterations in the character of the nation is that the American people never voted for it and do not want it. It is being imposed from above, anti-democratically, by a regime that refuses to enforce our laws and is now at virtual war with the American people.

Though immigration is the hottest domestic issue in 2006, and every candidate in a close race is taking a hard line on border security -- even Hillary Clinton voted for 700 miles of security fence -- the will of the people is ignored. According to a poll released Monday by The Center for Immigration Studies, 68 percent of Americans say immigration is too high. Only 2 percent believe it is too low. Yet the McCain-Kennedy-Bush bill would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and doubled the number of legal immigrants.

The failure to restrict immigration so the Melting Pot can work, the refusal to seal the border despite what America wants, suggests ours has ceased to be a democratic republic. "Here, sir, the people rule!" used to be a proud boast. Today, the line is laughable.

In my book "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," I projected that by 2050, every city in America would look like Los Angeles, and Los Angeles and the cities of the Southwest would look like Mexico City.

And what is happening to Los Angeles? According to Robert Putnam, Harvard political scientist and author of "Bowling Alone," the trust among people in "this most diverse human habitation in human history" is now at rock bottom, the lowest anywhere he could find.

"In the presence of diversity," said Putnam, "we hunker down. We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it's not just that we don't trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities we don't trust people who look like us."

The more people of different races that live in a community, the greater the loss of trust, said Putnam. "They don't trust the local mayor, they don't trust the local paper, they don't trust other people, and they don't trust institutions. ... The only thing there is more of is protest marches and TV watching."

Welcome to the Brave New World our elites are creating for our children, as they consign the America we grew up in to the compost heap of history.