Maher says some immigrants now reject assimilation, demand cultural exceptions

Bill Maher used his “New Rules” closing segment on HBO’s “Real Time” Friday to argue that a growing number of immigrants are rejecting the idea of assimilating into American culture, breaking from what he described as a longstanding national tradition.

“If you want the American Dream, you have to take the American values … Most immigrants still want to assimilate, but some now have this other attitude” of resisting assimilation, Mr. Maher said at the top of the segment.

The comedian and longtime HBO host said both major parties bore some responsibility for the current state of the immigration debate, faulting former President Joe Biden’s “policy of open doors” and President Trump’s “policy of broken windows.” Maher said he still supports the traditional American model of “stealing hard-working, talented immigrants from around the world and making them Americans,” but argued that model is being undermined. 

Maher said immigrants are not required to embrace every aspect of American culture, joking that dissatisfaction with the country is “why Yelp was invented.” He said the U.S. welcomes newcomers’ food, art, fashion and religious practices, but drew a line at what he called Western civilization’s core, nonnegotiable values.

He pointed to a gay cruise ship that was recently denied permission to dock in Turkey and Egypt as an example of a foreign government enforcing its own cultural boundaries, and suggested the U.S. should be similarly unapologetic about its own. Homophobia, he said, is not something “we just don’t do … here.”

Maher extended the same standard to the political right, saying he would tell “Christian nationalists” that the separation of church and state is equally non-negotiable, even for native-born Americans who want to reshape the country’s civic foundations.

He also moved to head off accusations that the segment was about race, saying the argument had “nothing to do with non-whites becoming the majority” and that his concern was about liberal values being displaced by illiberal ones, not demographic change.