> Below are the FACTS regarding U.S. immigration. If you take a few
> minutes to read this message you'll know more about immigration and
> what it's costing you than 99% of your fellow citizens. Please copy
> this information and email it to as many of your friends as possible.
> Nothing will happen without pressure being put on Congress and the
> President.
>
> Problems Of Massive Immigration And What You Can Do About It.
>
> How much immigration is there?
>
> The foreign-born population of the U.S. is currently 33 million or 12
> percent of the total U.S. population. Approximately 1.5 million
> immigrants (legal and illegal) settle in the U.S. each year.
>
> Population Growth
>
> Under current immigration policy, population growth adds the
> equivalent of a major city the size of Philadelphia every year. The
> annual arrival of 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants, coupled
> with 750,000 annual births to immigrant women, account for the
> overwhelming majority of U.S. population growth. The U.S population
> will be 400 million by 2050 (80 million larger than without
> immigration).
>
> Net Cost to Taxpayers
>
> The National Research Council estimated immigration is costing U.S.
> taxpayers between $11 and $22 billion per year. Immigrants tend to be
> disproportionately low-skilled and thus earn low wages which results
> in low tax payments. At the same time, they consume government
> services in areas such as education, criminal justice, and emergency
> medical care at a high rate, both because of their relative poverty
> and their higher fertility. California alone estimated that the net
> cost to the state of providing government services to illegal
> immigrants was $3 billion per year.
>
> Quality of Life
>
> The question that massive immigration presents is less one of space
> and survival than of quality of life. We suffer from increases in
> traffic congestion, school overcrowding, loss of natural habitat,
> destruction of prime farm land, increasing urban sprawl, and the loss
> of scarce tax dollars being used to support immigrants.
>
> After the massive population growth of the last 50 years, the homes of
> most Americans now are in large urban areas. Each year, because of
> continued population growth, open spaces get farther and farther out
> of reach. Increasingly Americans find the "open spaces" so congested
> they fail to receive the psychological and spiritual refreshment they
> had sought.
> After enormous expenditures to restore and preserve the quality of our
> water, air, eco-systems, and bio-diversity for future generations,
> there have been great improvements. But largely because there are 80
> million more people today flushing toilets, etc, 40% of our lakes and
> streams still don't meet the fishable and swimmable goal
>
> Every day, urban sprawl gobbles up square miles of prime farmland,
> natural habitat and recreational spaces. Americans are finding all
> cities becoming more and more like New York City and Los Angeles.
> Mid-size cities without big-city traffic jams today cannot long escape
> them. And any smaller cities, towns, and rural areas within 50 miles
> of the present outskirts of a large city are destined to be swallowed
> inside the ever-marching sprawl of the big cities.
>
> Impact on Urban School Children
>
> Since 1976, virtually all the increase in urban student enrollments
> has been due to the rise in the number of children of immigrants -
> immigrants who on average don't begin to earn enough money to pay the
> taxes to cover the education costs of their children. Across America,
> school overcrowding threatens the education of millions of children.
> Massive building programs at immense taxpayer costs have not been able
> to keep up.
>
> Immigration, Poverty and Black Americans
>
> Poverty in the U.S. is increasingly being caused by immigration
> policy. Immigration increases the supply of labor, reduces wages and
> makes jobs more scarce for natives. Job competition between
> immigrants and natives is especially fierce at the bottom of the labor
> market, because so many immigrants are poorly educated, low-skilled /
> low-wage earners. Black Americans are particularly hard hit since a
> large portion of their population is in competition for these lower
> wage jobs.
>
> Immigrant Entrepreneurs
>
> Entrepreneurship of immigrant small businessmen supposedly recharges
> our nation's creative spirit. Unfortunately, research shows that while
> immigrants were once significantly more entrepreneurial than natives,
> that is no longer true.
>
> Illegal Immigration
>
> Estimates differ but the Census 2000 results indicated that 700,000 to
> 800,000 illegal aliens settle in the U.S. each year, with an estimated
> 8-11 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States.
> That total does not include the millions of illegal aliens who were
> awarded amnesty by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and
> several other laws.
> The INS estimates that 60 percent of illegal residents entered the
> United States by sneaking across the border, and the remaining 40
> percent entered legally but overstayed their visas. The typical
> Mexican worker earns one-tenth his American counterpart and numerous
> American businesses are willing to hire cheap, compliant labor from
> abroad; such businesses are seldom punished because our country lacks
> a viable system to verify new hires' work eligibility.
>
> English as our national language
>
> Heard this lately?. "Press "1" if you speak English." Ten years ago
> you never heard that phrase. In the not too distant future you or
> your children may be hearing…"Press "1" if you speak Spanish".
>
> What has Congress done about this problem?
>
> Virtually every major poll that has been conducted in the past decade
> finds that a majority of Americans support lower immigration numbers.
> However, Congress seems to have little interest in reducing
> immigration. A recent national poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign
> Relations found a huge gap between the opinions of the American people
> on immigration and those of their leaders. The poll found that 60
> percent of the public regards the present level of immigration to be a
> "critical threat to the vital interests of the United States,"
> compared to only 14 percent of the nation's leadership.
> Since 1986, Congress has passed 7 amnesty laws for illegal aliens.
> [What is Amnesty? Amnesties are laws which forgive the breaking of
> immigration laws and make it possible for illegal aliens to live
> permanently in the United States. Amnesties represent a system of
> federal rewards and assistance for illegal migrants, and they entice
> an even greater number of illegal migrants.]
> Congress has declined to provide the Immigration and Naturalization
> Service (INS) with adequate resources to enforce current immigration
> laws. They have even discouraged enforcement of the laws by the INS.
> Still pending as the 108th Congress opens this month are the
> recommendations of the bi-partisan U.S. Commission on Immigration
> Reform to halt chain migration and the visa lottery and to seriously
> enforce laws against illegal aliens already in the U.S.. Congress
> voted in 1996 to consider those actions in a later session. We're
> still waiting.
>
> Want to know about the voting record of your Senator or Congressman on
> these issues? Go to this website: -
> http://grades.betterimmigration.com/index.php3
>
> What needs to be done?
>
> Change Immigration Laws: We need to change our immigration laws to
> permit only a fraction of the current level of legal immigration.
> Enforce Immigration Laws at Employment Sites: Without enforcement at
> employment sites in the U.S. there is no hope of controlling illegal
> immigration. Instead of spending more and more dollars to support
> immigrants we should be spending more money to enforce immigration
> laws.
>
> Enforce Immigration Laws at Our Borders: The standard response to
> illegal immigration has been increased border enforcement. And, in
> fact, such tightening of the border is long overdue.
>
> Please call your Senators' and Congressman and demand action (phone
> numbers in attached document). Please do it now! And forward this
> message to all of your friends. Thank you.
Normally I wouldn't rise to this, but maybe I'm having one of
those PMS days!
Whilst your comments (or whoever wrote this anti-immigration propoganda)
may well be valid wrt to illegal immigrants, I think you will find that
legal immigrants are generally highly skilled and earn higher than
average wages..paying lots of US taxes (40%) and contributing positively
to the US economy.
So go ahead, reduce the number of H1-B visa's and put higher controls on
the L-1 program...you're just going to end up loosing tax dollars!
--
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