U Not Gonna Like This

This from the Federation for American Immigration Reform newsletter:

300 Million and Counting …
Are We On A Path Of Self-Destruction?

Can the U.S. sustain this continued increase in its population or will this growth suffocate a once thriving nation?

The country’s population is growing by nearly 3 million people each year . . . the equivalent of adding another city the size of Chicago to the country each year.

Illegal immigrants generally compete for jobs with America’s most vulnerable population, i.e. those with less than a secondary school degree and has fewer job-market alternatives.

Yet the Bush Administration and Senate continue to push an accelerated process of change by proposing to open the door wider to both immigrants and foreigners, as well as give illegal aliens legal status; the end result: increased immigration.

The impact of this massive population increase is felt everywhere . . .

• overcrowded schools
• quality of childrens' education
• overloaded hospital and emergency rooms
• abuse of social services
• drain on natural resources, i.e. water supplies

. . . And it’s all paid for out of your tax dollars.

So, with a U.S. population of 300 million and counting the time is now for our leaders to act, not talk about true immigration reform.

Our future quality of life, our heritage, and our country's future is at stake, that’s why our fight for true immigration reform and enforcement is so important. Great strides have been made with substantial victories this year, but the battle is still to be won! The U.S. could balloon to a half-billion or more people by mid-century if we won't act to control runaway immigration.

and more from their web site:

As the population of the United States passes 300 million, will the nation’s policy makers come to their senses and pause for a moment and think about where the country is headed? Our population was just over 200 million in the 1970 Census and the rate of population increase of about one percent per year indicates that with no change we may add another 300 million residents over the next 70 years.

A continuation of the current trend means that most of the future U.S. population increase will result from immigration. Yet immigration is a discretionary policy — it can be either decreased, as recommended by the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, and desired by most Americans, or increased, as advocated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In 1970, less than one in every twenty residents in our country was foreign born. In 2006, the comparable level is nearly one in every eight residents is foreign born. This is a trend that will continue if immigration policy and immigration law enforcement do not change. Yet, the White House and the Senate are pushing to accelerate the process of change by opening the door wider to both immigrants and to foreigners coming as nonimmigrants to take American jobs. In contrast, the House of Representatives is focused on the estimated 12 or more million aliens believed to be residing illegally in the country and has voted for changes in immigration policy designed to dry up the influx and decrease that population.

Is the current high rate of population increase desirable? What does it mean for our growing dependence on petroleum imports — on the rising price of gasoline? What happens when underground aquifers that supply the majority of fresh water supplies in the country begin to run dry because they are being pumped out faster than rain water can refill them? How can the U.S. reduce its greenhouse emissions when we are adding about 3 million more residents a year? And what about the non-quantifiable “quality of life” factors that would be inexorably altered by the kind of dramatic population growth that awaits this country if we do not change our course?

As absurd as it sounds, the United States has no population policy. Even its immigration law, which is one of the most important parts of any population policy, is not rationalized based on an articulated set of objectives. The consequences of immigration are too important to the nation’s future for our policy makers to continue to leave the country operating on auto-pilot. The time is long past due for the nation to have a coherent immigration policy within the framework of an overall population policy. Public debate on those policy issues will further the decisions made by an informed electorate.

If the nation’s policy makers were to decide to try to stabilize the U.S. population, could they do that? A focus on the phenomenon of the ‘baby boom’ generation clearly demonstrates that any policy designed to change demographic dynamics cannot be achieved overnight. The ‘baby boomers’ are just now entering retirement age as their grandchildren are beginning to enter college or the workforce. With life expectancy on the rise, the ‘baby boomers’ are expected to be around and have a major impact on the Social Security system well into the future. While some suggest that we need more immigrants paying into the Social Security system to support today’s retirees, that is simply a time bomb that would explode when those new workers retired. For that reason, it is important that our policy makers focus not only on today’s population dynamics, they also need to focus ahead several generations.

This study does not answer all of the policy questions. It simply describes the role of immigration today in shaping the population of our largest metropolitan areas and how that process has been changing in recent years. Those interested in a glimpse at what this trend is likely to mean for the future population of the Unites States may find that in the study “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050: Four Immigration Scenarios” published by FAIR in March 2006.