Posted on 12/12/2005 1:10:46 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Immigration - both legal and illegal - has accelerated, pushing the percentage of the U.S. population born in other countries to the highest point in nearly a century.
There are 35.2 million foreign-born people living in the United States - about 12.1 percent of the population, according to a report Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies.
The report comes as the House prepares to take up a bill to curb illegal immigration by boosting border security and requiring workplace enforcement of immigration laws.
About 7.9 million people moved to the United States in the past five years, the highest five-year period of immigration on record, according to the report, which is based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey from March.
If the trend continues, immigrants will soon make up an even larger portion of the population than they did during the last immigration boom, at the beginning of the 20th century, the report said.
"The 35.2 million immigrants living in the country in March 2005 is the highest number ever recorded - two-and-a-half times the 13.5 million during the peak of the last great immigration wave in 1910," said the report by Steven Camarota, the center's research director.
The center advocates tougher policies on illegal immigration and favors attracting immigrants with needed job skills.
The report estimates there are about 9.7 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Other estimates range from 9 million to 13 million.
The report's estimate of the overall number of immigrants living in the United States is consistent with other analyses. But experts warn that it is difficult to accurately measure the number of people entering the country each year.
A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that immigration levels peaked around 2000, then dipped in 2002 and 2003. Nevertheless, Jeffrey Passel, a research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center, said immigration levels remained high, compared with historical levels.
Audrey Singer, an immigration fellow at the Brookings Institution, said, "There's no doubt that we are at a high in immigration to the United States." Singer said immigrants are attracted by economic opportunities and social ties to people already living in the United States.
"Look at places where people come from, these are places with very limited economic opportunities," Singer said.
Mexico is the largest source of immigrants to the United States, followed by East Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, according to the report.
A divided House Judiciary Committee approved a bill last week that would enlist military support in border surveillance and set new mandatory minimum sentences on smugglers and people convicted of re-entry after removal. Illegal presence in the country, now a civil offense, would become a federal crime.
The full House is expected to take up the measure this week, before it adjourns for the year.
President Bush has proposed a guest worker program that could allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily to fill jobs unwanted by Americans.
The guest worker provision is not part of the House bill.
Activists have been arguing for years that America needs to better secure its borders against illegal immigrants, while others argue that the American economy would collapse without the cheap labor provided by undocumented workers.
The Center for Immigration Studies says that immigrants, on average, are less educated and more likely to live in poverty than people born in the United States.
The Pew Hispanic Center, however, says that education levels are improving among recent immigrants.
Camarota said the U.S. should work harder to expel people who are in the United States illegally.
"The obvious thing is to enforce the law, at the border and at the work site, and to deny access to bank accounts and driver licenses," Camarota said.
But Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, said it would be impossible to deport as many as 11 million illegally immigrants, who make up about 5 percent of the U.S. work force.
"There isn't fairy dust that is going to make the 11 million people go away," Kelley said. "It would be far more sensible to have them come out into the light of day ... and give them a chance to join the American family on a permanent basis."
fyi, Senor Travis
My fellow Americans,
We (as lefty Democrats) rely on the illegal immigrant vote every election cycle. Therefore, we will be filibustering this legislation (in the name of 'immigrant rights'.)
We need a twenty year moratorium on immigration,legal as well as illegal. Espechially from the thired world. We don't need more immigrants from that hell-hole south of the U.S. Border. I just wish our Leaders in the executive branch would get that through their heads.
These are enough foreign folks of certain ethnic loyatlies to turn some cities into virtual hostile foreign enclaves.
Paris on steroids.
"The Center for Immigration Studies says that immigrants, on average, are less educated and more likely to live in poverty than people born in the United States."
So what.
I know this could likewise be said for Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada, and others.
People move for economic advantages, religious freedom, political freedom, adventure...and some to commit jihad.
Do you feel safe living in a town where your local Home Depot lets the illegals hang around your car/truck, in the parking lot? Instead of calling police?
...and if Police called....
Do you feel safe living in a town where your city council has voted to have the police stay way clear of checking immigration status?
And if this upsets you, you will be called a "racist?"
". . . who make up about 5 percent of the U.S. work force."
. . . and whose children make up over 50% of the schools in some areas and whose sick and elderly make up over 50% of ER patients, and . . .
" 'There isn't fairy dust that is going to make the 11 million people go away,' Kelley said."
Law enforcement is a viable replacement for fairy dust.
"It would be far more sensible to have them come out into the light of day ... and give them a chance to join the American family on a permanent basis."
And who will fill those low-wage jobs as these proto-Americans come into the light of day and begin taking higher-wage jobs? Hark! The thundering herd of new illegals who will lay low and patiently wait for the next Shamnesty bill to be passed.
Many Americans will agree with you, however the business community will not. As the business community started running low on cheap black labor they had to turn elsewhere from where to populate their "plantations" and Mexico was conveniently close by.
Our government will not do anything to stop the flow. We might vote for the government we have but it is the business interests that tells the government what to do.
This can't be true. They all hate us, we have no friends, the US is bad, it's our fault, yada, yada, yada.......
-Singer said immigrants are attracted by economic opportunities and social ties to people already living in the United States.-
Wow! Really?!
-"Look at places where people come from, these are places with very limited economic opportunities,"-
Wow! Really?!
-Mexico is the largest source of immigrants to the United States-
Wow! Really?! Here's my point: we already know all these things, and they don't matter. What does matter is that we have laws, the laws aren't being enforced, and as a result we're being INVADED and are doing nothing about it. Politicians: grow a spine and get rid of these invaders. I'm going to create a greeting card. On the front will be a picture of a spine, with the words "grow one". This will be my only means of communication with politicians from now on. No point in having any other kind.
ping
And the GOP globalist will secretly fund the pro immigration groups and lawyers to be ready to file challenges after challenges to any immigration laws after the Dems fail to stop it. Keep delaying and delaying as the demographics change to a point that the Hispanics will wield enough power to suffocate the immigration reformers politically. In the end, the Dems will get their voters and the GOP globalists will get their hefty profits from cheap labor. Meanwhile the GOP and Democrat middle class will wake up to a new economical reality.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
I wonder how many children to foreign born people are on the books? I see inner city schools with temporary buildings or new construction on the football field. These schools once housed the baby boomers, but are not big enough for this generation - when these kids grow up they will add a huge payment to Social Security and the Personal Income tax revenues. Watch these numbers in 5- 8 years.
61% have not finished high school.
25% have finished high school.
14% have some education beyond high school.
65% of Illegal Aliens have no health coverage.
9% of the Illegals remain unemployed. When a person is unskilled, they remain unskilled, legal or not.
The net drain from the Illegals on public services to the Federal Gov't, minus the taxes they do pay, is about 10 BILLION dollars a year. On State and local gov't it's likely to be significantly more than that..according to the CIS study.
One third to one half of all immigrant children in school are either illegal or the children of illegals.
sw
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