While promoting his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (Thomas Dunne Books) during the August 29 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show, MSNBC political analyst and former Republican and Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan suggested that, due to Hispanic immigration, “it's hard to see what holds America together by 2050.” Buchanan claimed Mexican immigration is “unlike” the predominantly Christian “old immigration” and said “most of the immigrants into this country -- 85 or 90 percent -- are not so much of Spanish heritage as they are of Indian or Mestizo [heritage].”

As Media Matters for America has previously noted, the weblog Think Progress pointed out that Buchanan's book is filled with controversial claims about immigration, which Buchanan calls “the greatest invasion in history.”

In his interview with Rosen, Buchanan repeated several claims from his book, including his prediction that the number of Mexican immigrants coming into the United States will cause “the general balkanization of America.” He said that already has begun, because “native-born Americans are leaving California and leaving all these cities and towns where immigrants are pouring in.” As Media Matters for America has previously noted, on the June 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Buchanan claimed that “what's coming is the complete balkanization of America” whereby the United States will be separated “by ethnicity and culture, and language, and every other way” and will not be “like the country you and I grew up in,” which was “monocultural.” Similarly, on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Buchanan claimed: “You're going to have a giant Kosovo in the Southwest, which de facto is going to secede from this country.”

Buchanan also told Rosen that “when you go through the culture and you go through it -- language, culture, and all these other things which really hold a country together -- and you see how they are disintegrating, it's hard to see what holds America together by 2050.” An August 25 article by Buchanan on the conservative website WorldNetDaily, said that "[b]y 2050, the Census Bureau estimates 102 million Hispanics will live in America" and that he believes that "[t]he ethnic, linguistic and cultural reconquest of the American Southwest by Mexico is well advanced." The article stated further that "
[t]hree in five Mexicans now believe the Southwest is stolen land that belongs to Mexico."

Buchanan went on to say, "[t]he group [of recent immigrants] from Mexico includes millions of people who believe the Southwest belongs to them. They have a grudge against Americans. Mexican government is pushing this along; they have an agenda of their own."

Replying to Rosen's comment that “we have never had an influx of people from any one country before as we have from Mexico right now,” Buchanan claimed that today's immigration is “unlike the old immigration, which came from Eastern and Southern Europe, people who had lived under a predominantly Christian, whether it was Orthodox or Protestant, or Catholic culture, a similar culture to what we had in America, which was predominantly Protestant.” However, according to the International Religious Freedom Report 2004 posted by the U.S. Department of State, the 2000 Mexican census shows that “approximately 88 percent of respondents identify themselves as at least nominally Roman Catholic.”

Buchanan also stated, “most of the immigrants into this country -- 85 or 90 percent -- are not so much of Spanish heritage as they are of Indian or Mestizo [heritage].” He then asserted that “whether we like it or not, different races and cultures and ethnic groups, especially who have a completely different history and language, are far more difficult to assimilate into another country.” Mestizo, according to the American Heritage Dictionary on bartleby.com, is "[a] person of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and Native American ancestry."

From the August 29 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

ROSEN: Let's talk about your book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. That's pretty strong talk. Is it that serious?

BUCHANAN: Oh, I think it is, Mike. We have 36 million immigrants in the country now, and 12 million is the consensus figure on illegal aliens, which is more than all the Irish, and English, and Jewish folks who ever came, from Jamestown to JFK. The president says 6 million tried to break in on his watch, and estimates of how many got in range from about two and a half million to 4 million. Nobody knows the “other-than-Mexicans” coming now tripled in the last three years. So I think if you don't get control of the border now, I don't think you ever will. And if you never do, I think what is happening where native-born Americans are leaving California and leaving all these cities and towns where immigrants are pouring in and repopulating them, and they're going into the interior, you can see the general balkanization of America. And I -- when you go through the culture and you go through it -- language, culture, and all these other things which really hold a country together -- and you see how they are disintegrating, it's hard to see what holds America together by 2050.

[...]

ROSEN: There are those who've offered comparative statistics. They note that the foreign-born population of the United States is about 12 percent today; a hundred years ago it was 15 percent. But here's a key difference: We have never had an influx of people from any one country before as we have from Mexico right now.

BUCHANAN: Nothing like that. And the nature of the immigration today -- as I say, the illegal population -- is incredible when you see it's more than -- It's not only I mention the Irish, and the Jewish, and the English in one category; the two largest groups who've ever come are German and Italian. The illegal population is greater than that, and the 36 million, that is the greatest transfer or flow of people, peaceful invaders, if you will, coming to America, of any nation in all of human history. And unlike the old immigration, which came from Eastern and Southern Europe, people who had lived under a predominantly Christian, whether it was Orthodox or Protestant or Catholic culture, a similar culture to what we had in America, which was predominantly Protestant -- very similar -- and they were people of the West, if you will. Now people are coming from the Third World, from different cultures and of different ethnic groups and races, and continents, and countries, none of which has ever been fully assimilated into an American or Western society. The cohort is larger than it's ever been. The melting pot is broken. The group from Mexico includes millions of people who believe the Southwest belongs to them. They have a grudge against Americans. Mexican government is pushing this along; they have an agenda of their own. This is all dramatically different. You didn't have, you know, Polish folks coming over here and demonstrating in our streets in the hundreds of thousands and millions saying, “This is part of Poland and we want it back.”

Buchanan: And, you see, most of the immigrants into this country -- 85 or 90 percent -- are not so much of Spanish heritage as they are of Indian or Mestizo. And, whether we like it or not, different races, and cultures, and ethnic groups, especially who have an entirely different history and language, are far more difficult to assimilate into another country. We can see examples all over the world. And my point is, we are not immune to this. As for the elites, I think they're utilizing this, exploiting it. And in Mexico City, all this adds together.