A major obstacle to average Americans’ ability to gain a real understanding of the immigration issue is the policy of many in the media to offer “news” that mostly promotes and encourages the anti-enforcement agenda.

While many individuals whom the press refer to as “immigrant rights activists” bemoan the fact that we even have immigration laws and label them “unfair, racist and xenophobic,” the fact is the United States takes in more than 1 million legal immigrants each year — more than any nation on the planet. We have nothing to apologize for.

Here is a quick look at what the ethnic hustlers who strive for open borders tell us is the “broken immigration system.” They may have an unintended point.

No. 1 region of origin of American immigration? Africa. No. 2? Asia.

Here it must be noted, again, that the federal definition of “immigrant” is a person who enters the United States lawfully with the intention of permanent residence or an alien who has been granted “lawful permanent residence” — a status documented by what is commonly known as a green card. Temporary workers are not immigrants. Foreigners who escape capture while sneaking into our country illegally are certainly not immigrants, either.

No. 1 country of origin for immigrants? Mexico, sending about twice as many (139,120) as No. 2, the People’s Republic of China, at 70,863.

The latest Department of Homeland Security annual immigration flow report titled “U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2010” also tells us that No. 3 on the list is India. It is followed by the Philippines, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Vietnam, Haiti, Columbia, South Korea, Iraq (19,855) and Jamaica.

Next, after El Salvador, come Pakistan, Bangladesh (14,819), Ethiopia, Peru, Iran (14,182) and Nigeria.

Coming in at No. 20 on the list that totals 1,042,625 immigrants for 2010 is Canada (13,328), with “all other countries” listed last and as a group sending just 359,055 people to be future American voters. This category includes the countries from which the pre-1965 “old America” was largely populated. You know, Poland, Sweden, Italy, England, Germany, Norway, Ireland, Greece, France — out-of-fashion places like that.

The 1965 Immigration Reform Act was the beginning of America’s mass immigration disorder. Before then, America was a low-immigration nation under laws written in 1924 and altered in 1952. As a result, America became a fundamentally middle-class society, and our many mostly European (uh-oh!) ethnic groups assimilated into a common national culture, one that proudly — and logically — worked toward use of a common language: English.

The very educational material contained in the DHS flow report is not considered “newsworthy” by most editors and producers.

Why do you think that is? The prediction is that our children will have to deal with a national population of nearly half a billion people by 2050. English is now an optional language in the U.S.

Whether you approve or disapprove of the current system, who do you suppose made the immigration decision about which — and how many — “new Americans” we import each year? Do you remember ever being asked about it? Can you recall a national discussion about the source or size of America’s future population?

Me neither. But a warning: Even bringing this important topic up will be met with swift and certain attempts at public punishment.

Prepare for the mindless “but we are a nation of immigrants” goop and try to forget that we are actually a nation of laws — and that literally billions of people in the world want to live here. Unless we want to become more of a a Balkanized, mirror image of the nations these people desperately flee, we can’t allow all potential immigrants to migrate into the U.S.

Which brings us to the reasons we have, and must enforce, our borders and immigration laws: To at least regulate the number of people who come to live here, and to honor and protect the real immigrants who obeyed the rules — not to mention our resources, that famous American culture, the English language and national sovereignty.

Another report from DHS, “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2010,” gives us official information on from where illegal immigration comes. No. 1 nation on the list? Mexico. Then El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Philippines, India, Ecuador, Brazil, Korea, China and then “all other countries.”

You may have seen some of these “victims” marching on the Capitol angrily demanding an end to any enforcement of our immigration laws.

“Broken immigration system” indeed. Si?

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. Visit the society’s website at (http://www.thedustininmansociety.org.)