October 16, 2006

Immigration-fueled population growth threatens U.S. way of life.

By Dan Stein

Overcrowded schools, congested highways, environmental stresses: We are a nation paving over its wildernesses while depending on our enemies for vital resources.

Why?

Because Americans have been blindsided by a government-mandated mass immigration program that's fueling this nation's runaway population growth. This growth was neither planned nor expected, but we feel the consequences every day.

The population of the USA will reach 300 million this week on a relentless march to half a billion before 2050. That's because about 80% of the current population growth in the USA is due to immigration policies — immigrants legally admitted, illegal immigrants, and births to immigrants after entering. Only a dramatic rollback in overall immigration can reverse these trends. The time to act is now. (Read USA TODAY's view.)

Thirty years ago, the Rockefeller Commission could find no benefit from further increases in the size of the U.S. population. In 2006, it is hard to see how the massive government-mandated population growth of the past 30 years has improved life for most Americans. The addition of a staggering 100 million people since the late 1960s has accelerated virtually every environmental problem, exacerbated resource depletion, contributed to sprawl and congestion, and strained nearly all public services.

Many of our nation's opinion elite now seem intent on further acceleration. The Senate recently approved an illegal alien amnesty and immigration increase that would have resulted in at least 66 million new immigrants arriving in the USA in the next 20 years — and we'd hit a billion people before 2100. This is insane, and only a massive public outcry and strong opposition in the House prevented this from occurring.

Our population future is entirely within our power to determine. Just as the government has mandated soaring overcrowding and congestion in the past several decades, it has the power to slow population growth by curtailing immigration and enforcing laws against illegal immigration.

It's time to talk about the purposes of immigration and its role in our national future. As responsible stewards for future generations, there is an urgency to consider how our decisions today will affect the nation they will inherit — before it's too late.

Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).