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Mass Immigration Said 'Swamping' U.S. Cities
NewsMax ^ | 12 Jan, 2004

Posted on 01/12/2004 7:33:52 PM PST by Happy2BMe

Mass Immigration Said 'Swamping' U.S. Cities

Jon E. Dougherty
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004
Mass immigration, most of it coming from south of the border, is "swamping" the United States, with six large U.S. cities now consisting mostly of foreign-born inhabitants, a new report warns.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington, D.C.-based group advocating tighter immigration restrictions, says 1.1 million immigrants will enter the U.S. this year alone. In its new report, FAIR says the immigrant population nearly doubled from 19.8 million in 1990 to 31.1 million a decade later.

"America's immigration policies have launched us into a risky experiment never tried by a modern day country," said Dan Stein, FAIR's executive director, in reference to the new numbers. "This demographic change is unlike anything this country has ever experienced, and is unprecedented in modern times."

FAIR says six large U.S. cities over 100,000 – Hialeah and Miami, Fla., along with Glendale, Santa Ana, Daly City and El Monte, Calif. – had foreign-born populations of more than 50 percent. The immigrant population constituted 41-50 percent of the total in four others: Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, and Garden Grove, Calif., along with Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Mexico accounted for about 9.2 million immigrants, or 30 percent of the total foreign-born population in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau's 2000 report, making it the leading country of birth. Next were China and the Philippines, with 1.5 million and 1.4 million respectively. They are followed by India, Vietnam, Cuba, South Korea, Canada, El Salvador and Germany.

In 2000, more than half the foreign born population lived in three states: California, New York and Texas, the Census Bureau found. The FAIR report said immigration was the greatest in the South, which saw its foreign born population grow by 90 percent, followed by 65 percent in the Midwest.

FAIR says the foreign-born population in the U.S. will swell to 45 million by 2010 if current immigration levels continue, "making this decade's wave of immigration the largest in U.S. history," the report said, adding California's foreign-born population alone is expected to swell to 12 million by decade's end.

Currently, the U.S. population is estimated at 291 million people, according to Census Bureau figures.

Though not all immigration is unhealthy for the country, FAIR says many regions of the U.S. are already struggling economically to provide basic services for people. Adding more numbers will simply make it more difficult – and expensive – to offer them, and that could lead to other troubles, the group claimed.

"What remains to be seen is if this country has the capacity to accommodate, and assimilate, an unending wave of mass immigration ¯ because failure to do so will result in a balkanized, fragmented, strife-torn and dysfunctional America," Stein said.

New Immigrant Initiatives

A number of surveys have shown a majority of Americans at odds with lawmakers who support high levels of immigration. Still, there are new immigrant-friendly initiatives being introduced and considered by Congress and the Bush administration.

For the first time since before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the administration has hinted it is considering a new work-related legalization program for millions of aliens currently residing in the U.S.

A week ago in Miami, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge told an audience the U.S. will have to "come to grips" with such an initiative, if for nothing else because of the sheer number of illegal aliens who here now or planning to come in the future.

"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it," Ridge said.

Legislatively, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-3 in October to approve the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2003, which would provide college opportunities for U.S.-born children of illegal aliens residing in the country – a vote hailed by immigrant and Latino support groups.

"The future of thousands of Hispanic children depends on the passage of this bill," said a statement by the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group.

In clarifying Ridge's statement to reporters a few days later, President Bush said he has opposed, and continues to oppose, any "blanket amnesty" for illegal aliens. But, he echoed the Homeland Security chief's support for a work-related legalization plan.

"We need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee," Bush told reporters Dec. 15. "It makes sense that that policy go forward. And we're in the process of working that through now so I can make a recommendation to the Congress."

Bush will travel to the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, next month, where he will likely discuss the issue with other regional leaders.

Some lawmakers, however, call such work-related plans little more than an amnesty program, and are opposed them on those grounds. Instead, they are pushing for stricter overall enforcement of existing immigration laws as well as a different approach to creating the so-called "guest worker" programs.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., head of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, says border legislation he introduced earlier this year aims to plug "gaping holes in both America’s porous borders and its dysfunctional guest worker programs."

Reform groups like FAIR maintain the first issue Washington should address is continued record-high immigration.

"Mass immigration has nothing whatsoever to do with the economic and social well-being of the United States or the American people," Stein said. "Immigration is entirely about the interests of the immigrants themselves, special interest ethnic groups, and business interests that want unlimited numbers of low-wage workers."


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: aliens; demographics; immigration; oas; swamp
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To: ConsistentLibertarian; FreeReign
If the US birth rate declined to below the present rate in France and northern Italy, would your mathematical calculations make you a strong advocate of increasing the flow of immigration to the US?

Well, I'll have a go at that one.

Let's see . . . If a declining birthrate were to lower the U.S. population to the size it was when I was a young fellow, say around 150 million, then I guess before I'd be in favor of adding more immigrants, I'd still say let's wait to see how it goes.

81 posted on 01/12/2004 9:24:52 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Missouri
Its not 1850 anymore and we're running out of room.

There's only so much prime real estate in this country, and the more people we add, the smaller the percentage of Americans who can live in the best places.

Doesn't sound like a way to increase prosperity for us or our children.

Of course, those people who own lots and lots of real estate, will be telling us how noble it is for us to share America with more and more immigrants, which happens to raise the price of their property--a happy coincidence, I'm sure.

82 posted on 01/12/2004 9:27:44 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Age of Reason
"There is something fundamentally wrong with modern America if the most productive people on earth aren't bred and grown right here at home."

That's crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Only a small percentage of the world's population are American. One reason America has so many productive people is that we import them. Productivity is a measure of how much value someone can create over a given period of time. Computer programmers, scientists, engineers, artists, athletes, entertainers ... they all create value and we can measure their productivity. Some of the most productive people in the US are immigrants who left Iran, Kenya, the Czech Republic etc etc and made their way here (where we collect their taxes and don't let them vote).

It's been that way for a long time. At a time when anti-semitism was a more powerful force in American politics, the US imported amazingly productive Jewish scientists who wanted to escape Hitler's Germany. I'm sure glad no one was around to say "Hey, Buy American" in the labor market for nuclear scientists!

If you wanted to maximize the productivity of Americans you could deport the lowest quartile and replace them in a heartbeat with Chinese or Guatemalan or Icelandic substitutes or what have you.
83 posted on 01/12/2004 9:31:40 PM PST by ConsistentLibertarian
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To: ConsistentLibertarian
Employers don't have to look for labor in the black market. It is possible to be honest and an employer at the same time you know.

The ideas you advocate show no regard for the value of citizenship, the right of the citizen to have a government that does not harm them and the right of the citizen to maintain the priniciples upon which this country was founded.
84 posted on 01/12/2004 9:38:13 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: Age of Reason
"some people will take risks and succeed, but for every one who does, there must be many more who fail."

Good.

So we can start by thinking of how many entrepreneurial successes it takes to grow an economy and then multiple that by a large value to get some idea of the size of the entrepreneurial population pool we need.

Seems you're thinking it's going to be very big number. Maybe it's best to develop an "efficient" immigration policy were "efficiency" is measured by the difference between the percentage of the immigrant population and the percentage of the general population who are willing to take the necessary sorts of risks?
85 posted on 01/12/2004 9:39:17 PM PST by ConsistentLibertarian
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To: Happy2BMe
MCCAIN-FEINGOLD LAW LEAVES WASHINGTON A DESERTED SMOKING RUIN-Campaign Finance Reform thread-day 33 (with some opening humor)

86 posted on 01/12/2004 9:42:08 PM PST by The_Eaglet (Michael Peroutka for President)
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To: Happy2BMe
"We need to have an immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee,"

How many tens of millions of third-worlders would leap at the chance to take ANY job in the USA for minimum wage? From machinist to painter to carpenter to factory worker to you name it.

This is a plan for national suicide.

87 posted on 01/12/2004 9:43:17 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: jolie560
Bring em on--the more the better.

A billion third worlders would move here next year for the promise of a shot at a $5.15 job---that used to pay an American $15 or $20 an hour.

Are you serious?

88 posted on 01/12/2004 9:45:18 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: ConsistentLibertarian
That's crazy. Absolutely crazy.

You're saying it's sane that America NEEDS smart people from other countries because Americans are stupid and lazy?

If that's true, then America is not a great place because it breeds losers.

Seems to me something similar happened to Ancient Rome.

Romans also became fat and lazy, and the system that produced them, Rome, fell--despite all those more industrious immigrants Rome imported.

At any rate, as for those genius scientists America imported to help it win WWII--well, hey, I've nothing against stealing a few of the most talented people from other countries--even if we had plenty of talented people here, because that weakens other countries.

89 posted on 01/12/2004 9:45:58 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: ConsistentLibertarian
Only fools and the desperate take risks.
90 posted on 01/12/2004 9:50:52 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: ConsistentLibertarian
And we have entirely enough fools and the desperate people as it is.
91 posted on 01/12/2004 9:55:05 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Travis McGee
"How many tens of millions of third-worlders would leap at the chance to take ANY job in the USA for minimum wage? From machinist to painter to carpenter to factory worker to you name it."

Jobs Americans Won't Do: Voodoo Economics from the White House.


92 posted on 01/12/2004 9:57:48 PM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Happy2BMe; harpseal; Lazamataz
Sad but true!
93 posted on 01/12/2004 10:03:00 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: zip
ping
94 posted on 01/12/2004 10:23:46 PM PST by Mrs Zip
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To: gubamyster; JustPiper
ping
95 posted on 01/13/2004 5:23:54 AM PST by Klickitat
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To: Travis McGee; Happy2BMe; Lazamataz
MY initial reaction is every illegal immigrant should be deported whenever found. However, There is something that bothers me about this given there are what at least 10,000,000 of them it might well strain the transportation system to deport them all. The insane thing is those who talk of opening our borders further are truly enemies of the USA.
96 posted on 01/13/2004 8:31:41 AM PST by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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To: harpseal; B4Ranch
"The insane thing is those who talk of opening our borders further are truly enemies of the USA."

Alien Nation - Mexican Hypocrisy, Corruption, and Welfare Fraud


97 posted on 01/13/2004 8:37:52 AM PST by Happy2BMe (Liberty does not tolerate lawlessness and a borderless nation will not prevail.)
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To: Travis McGee
Some of the trade policies that are affecting America right now are being developed in this organization. They world closely with the World Bank.

If you haven't looked at it before, here are some links:

http://www.oas.org/main/english/

http://www.oas.org/main/main.asp?sLang=E&sLink=../../documents/eng/oasinbrief.asp
98 posted on 01/13/2004 8:56:28 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: harpseal
Give them the right legal disincentives, and they will deport themselves pronto.
99 posted on 01/13/2004 11:52:32 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Texas_Dawg
I agree with Henreitta on post #5.

BTW, the real Dawgs are in Georgia at UGA [the Bulldogs, they wrote a song about them "Who let the Dawgs out?"]

100 posted on 01/13/2004 12:37:24 PM PST by citizen (Write-in Tom Tancredo President 2004!)
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