The Issues
Read more about these important issues:
Immigration and Population Growth
The current immigration discussion often focuses on whether immigration is good or bad. But the real issue is how many immigrants can the U.S. absorb and who should be allowed in. Since the 1960's, annual immigration has increased from about 400,000 annually to about 2,000,000, an increase of 500 percent! Estimates of the cost to taxpayers of today's immigration level range from $30 to $60 billion annually, and increasing every year. At a time when Congress is wrestling with ways to reduce the deficit, the historically high level of immigration and the associated costs means that more dollars will have to be cut from benefits for the elderly, veterans, schools, the environment, etc.
Recent polls indicate that 70 percent to 80 percent of Americans want to reduce immigration, but our voices are not being heard. Powerful, well-financed, special interest groups have so far been successful in killing every effort to reduce immigration to sustainable levels. The Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration (MCRI) is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit non-partisan group dedicated to making the voices of Midwest citizens heard in this debate. But to be effective, we need thousands of additional members demanding meaningful immigration reform. Allow me to explain why your support is urgently needed.
As Chart 1 and Chart 2 dramatically demonstrate, unless the present immigration trends are significantly reduced, America will add more people in the next 60 to 70 years than in the almost 400 years since the founding of Jamestown in 1607. Immigration accounted for a population increase of more than 30 million people in just the last two decades. Immigrants tend to have much larger families than the average American. When we add in their children and their children's children, it quickly accumulates to 12 to 15 people for every immigrant allowed in. As a result the U.S. will add more than the entire population of Russia in only 30 years.
Immigration was not a problem during the last century when there were open frontiers and we needed many strong backs to farm our lands, build our railroads, and work our mills. And even today there are examples of immigrants who are making a major contribution to our society. However, the majority of immigrants are uneducated and unskilled. Today, we are in the post- Industrial, Information Age when there is a surplus of unskilled labor. We have 20 million persons either unemployed or involuntarily working at part time or temporary jobs. We have another 20 million persons working at pay levels below the poverty level.
The result of today's immigration will be to swell the ranks of the poor in this country by the tens of millions. In the last great wave of immigration early in this century there wasn't any welfare and 40 percent of the aliens returned to their homelands when they could not find jobs. No one is going back now. The U.S. General Accounting Office study shows that immigrants are twice as likely to use welfare as the average American.
A recent analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies indicates that the population of Illinois is expected to increase by almost 3 million because of immigrants and their families during the next 25 years. The consequences are totally predictable:
- Illinois will need to build an additional school every month for the next 25 years to handle the increased school enrollment due to children of the new immigrants. The city of Chicago already spends about $450 million to educate immigrant children; the fastest growing component of its budget is for bilingual education. Bilingual education increases the cost of education per student by about 50 percent.
- Although most immigrants are law abiding, we can expect crime to increase. It costs Illinois $44 million a year to imprison illegal aliens. No estimates of the cost of jailed legal aliens are available, but since 1980 California has incurred a 600 percent increase in alien inmates. Nationally, 29 percent of federal prisoners are foreign-born.
- Illinois is now spending more than $170 million on welfare for illegal immigrants. That is a mere drop in the bucket to what California has experienced. Illinois can expect its welfare cost to soar in the coming years. As a taxpayer it will come out of your pocket.
- As rival ethnic groups vie for a dwindling number of good paying jobs we can expect inter-racial strife increasing and a general breakdown of the social cohesion that has held our country together for the past 200 years.
Most Members of Congress believe that the problem of immigration will be solved by simply strengthening our border patrol. This is mistaken on two counts. First, the borders of the US run for about 6000 miles, not even including the 4000 miles along the East and West Coasts. It is impossible to add enough Border Patrol agents to prevent determined aliens from sneaking in, especially when there is virtually no penalty for being caught.
Second, illegal immigrants account for only about 50 percent of annual immigration. As Chart 2 shows, the vast majority of immigrants are legal. The problem is that ill-conceived legislation over the past two decades has dramatically increased immigration which is now running at eight times the historic level.
Immigration control can only be achieved by:
- Removing the incentive to illegally enter the US by ending the demand for illegals. This requires a return to workplace enforcement that has all but been abandoned by the federal government. If employers knew they ran a high risk of major fines for hiring illegals, the practice would soon stop.
- Protect honest employers who want to hire only legal immigrants by instituting a mandatory workplace verification program using the Social Security Administration's database. The current program now in place nationally is strictly voluntary.
- End the present practice of “chain migration” whereby an immigrant who attains citizenship can petition to bring in all the members of his extended family, including parents and siblings (who can then petition for their relatives). The law should allow reunification for an immigrants wife and children only. Any other relatives should be treated as any other applicant wishing to migrate to the US.
- End automatic citizenship for children of non-citizens born in the US.
- Limit total immigration from all sources to 300,000 annually. This is about the long term average and would allow the US to maintain its tradition of being the most generous nation in the world in terms of immigration while stabilizing US population growth.
Victims of a Victimless Crime
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Indeed, many Americans have been murdered in cold blood by illegal aliens.
On August 9, 2002, Ranger Kris Eggle was killed on the border by a drug smuggler running from Mexican agents. Bonnie Eggle, mother of Kris Eggle, stated "This murderer was a hired assassin for a drug cartel in Sonoyta who had already been involved in quadruple murders the evening before." She pleads for United States citizens to drop the 'politically correct' notion that only innocent farm laborers are sneaking across the border.
(See the Kris Eggle memorial website and photos of the border).
Rancher Rob Krentz was murdered on his ranch on March 27, 2010. It was believed that he was aiding an illegal alien. Many suspect the murder was retribution for his removal of illegal marijuana that organized Mexican drug trafficers had left on his ranch. His family wrote "This senseless act took the life of a man, a humanitarian, who bore no ill will towards anyone. Rob loved his family instilling in them the importance of honesty, fair dealing and skill managing all aspects of a large 100 year old ranching operation producing food to make our country strong and healthy. He was known for his concern and kindness helping neighbors, friends and even trespassers on his ranch with compassionate assistance in their time of need."
Dustin Inman was one of the uncounted thousands of Americans who have needlessly lost their lives because government in America refuses to secure American borders or enforce American immigration and employment laws. Sixteen-year-old Dustin Inman was killed by an illegal alien in a senseless traffic collision on his way to a family fishing trip on Father's Day, 2000.
Despite being in the United States illegally, the driver of the car that
killed Dustin, Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, was able to obtain a valid North Carolina driver's license using his Mexican birth certificate and a Mexican Matricula Consular ID card. He is still at large.
When his mother, Kathy Inman, regained consciousness after five weeks in a coma, she learned of the death of her son and that because of spinal injuries received in the wreck that killed him, she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Because of their injuries, Kathy and Billy were not able to attend their only son's funeral.
More information about innocent Americans killed by illegal aliens is available at the Immigration's Human Cost website.
Population Statistics
This section presents population and other statistics. Click on the links below to view various charts and graphs with explanations.
Population Forecast
Chart 1 below shows the three population forecasts of the US Census Bureau. The difference forecasts depends almost entirely on the assumed rates of immigration. Not only does immigration affect population growth directly, but because immigrants have more children than native born Americans, there is an indirect affect as well.
Note that if net immigration (immigrants minus emigrants) were only about 200,000 annually the population of the US would level out and even decline very slightly. If net immigration (including illegals) averaged one million annually. US population will soar to over 500 million by the end of this century. This is the forecast that the Census Bureau labels “most likely.” However the Census Bureau has always underestimated population growth.
If the present growth in immigration continues – which is a certainty unless the US acts to control immigration from all sources, then the High Series projection becomes a mathematical certainty, i.e., the US population will pass one billion people within the present century. With a billion people the US will join China and India in terms of population density and all the commensurate problems of environmental deterioration, political instability, loss of living standards, etc. In short. we will have destroyed the American Dream for most Americans.
Finally it should be noted that we must act quickly. It takes about 50 years (two generations) before birth rates of immigrants fall to the US average. Hence, even if we were to cut off all immigration tomorrow, the higher birth rate of immigrants of the past 30 years will continue to drive up US population form years to come.
As has been said, the US is well on the road to national suicide.
Immigration History
Chart 2 below shows just how far present immigration departs from tradition immigration to the US. The chart depicts five-year immigration averages during our nation’s history. Note that today immigration is twice the level of the Great Wave of immigration at the beginning of the 20th century and about eight times the historic average of 250,000 annually. Note also that illegal immigration is a recent phenomena.
This is due to three main reasons. First, the 1965 Immigration Act permitted legal immigrants to petition to bring not only their spouse and children, but their parent and brothers and sisters as well. Then they petition for their in-laws, siblings and children, as well. In short since all persons in a given country are related, ultimately everyone becomes eligible for immigration.
Second, due to a misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, (which was intended to grant automatic citizenship to children of slaves) children of anyone, including illegals immigrants, born in the US are automatically US citizens. In recent years hundreds of thousand of aliens illegally enter the US to have their babies born here.
Finally. In the last 30 years there has been a complete breakdown of the federal government's efforts to enforce immigration laws, especially sanctions on employers of illegals. Workplace raids have all but been abandoned and in those rare instances where an employer has been found guilty of hiring illegals he has received no more than a slap on the wrist. The means are in place to enforce employer sanctions and end the demand for illegals - all that is lacking is the will.
School Age Population
Graph 3 below shows just one effect of current immigration trends. Almost all the growth in school age population is due to immigration. Immigration is now the number one reason for the increase in the cost of education and the decrease in average test scores. The result will be higher taxes.
Average Family Income
During the period 1947 to 1974 the average family income of all income groups adjusted for inflation rose by about 100%. This fast growth in total income was due to a spectacular increase in US productivity of about 3% annually. However, the even distribution of that income among all income groups was due to labor shortage which forced employers to pass on the benefit of productivity increases to both workers and investors.
Beginning in the 1970s, the increase in the labor force due to the baby boom population entering the labor force, and the increase in labor force participation rates of woman and minorities depressed the growth in wage rates. However, this was a temporary phenomenon and by the late 1980s labor rates should have begun increasing again. In fact all things being equal the 60% increase in productivity over the period 1974 to 2001 should have increased real wages by at least that amount. But average weekly earning for the private sector actually declined over this period by about 9%!
The combined effects of the increased competition from cheap immigrant labor coupled with the out-migration of good paying manufacturing jobs to low wage countries resulted in the low growth and unequal distribution of family income shown on the chart. Especially hard hit was the lowest income group who was only able to increase its income by about 15% over the 26 years from 1974 to 2001. Note that this is family income which often includes the second income from women in the labor force – a phenomena which was relatively during the earlier post-war period shown on the chart.
In short, the US has entered a period where investors have generally increased their wealth due to the diversion of the benefits of national productivity growth from those who rely primarily on the wages for their income. Unless this trend is radically altered, the distribution of income and wealth in the US will mirror that of most Third World countries where the middle class disappears and the lion’s share of wealth accrues to a very small number of the super rich. The US will no longer be a democracy but, for all practical purposes, a plutocracy.
So far, the majority of our leadership, whether Democrats or Republicans, could care less. Only 72 members of the House Immigration Caucus led by Tom Tancredo of Colorado have indicated a willingness to step up to the issue. The reason is that not enough Americans are calling and writing their Congressmen demanding that they pass the necessary legislation to regain control of our borders. The responsibility lies entirely in the hands of the voters. If you are not holding your Member of Congress accountable, YOU are part of the problem. Get involved today!
