The problem is that this "brown flood" will hasten the end of the entitlement programs, not shore them up. Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation concluded that the cost of the 2007 McCain-Kennedy amnesty would be $2.6 trillion just for increased entitlement program costs. And the number of additional LEGAL immigrants who would join those who were the recipients of amnesty through chain migration, i.e., family reunification, would approach 70 million over a 20-year period, assuming there are only 12 million illegal aliens.
Rector will be coming out shortly with his estimate of the Rubio-Schumer amnesty that will top more than $3 trillion when you now include Obamacare. Even immigrants grow old.
The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 36 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 90 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born.
Currently, 1.6 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year; 350,000 immigrants leave each year, resulting in a net immigration of 1.25 million. Since 1970, the U.S. population has increased from 203 million to 310 million, i.e., over 100 million. In the next 40 years, the population will increase by an additional 130 million to 440 million. Three-quarters of the increase in our population since 1970 and the projected increase will be the result of immigration. The U.S., the world’s third most populous nation, has the highest annual rate of population growth of any developed country in the world, i.e., 0.9% (2012 estimate,) principally due to immigration.
The nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 40 million in 2010, the highest number in our history. The U.S. immigrant population has doubled since 1990, nearly tripled since 1980, and quadrupled since 1970, when it stood at 9.7 million. Of the 40 million immigrants in the country in 2010, 13.9 million arrived in 2000 or later making it the highest decade of immigration in American history, even though there was a net loss of jobs during the decade. Growth in the immigrant population has primarily been driven by high levels of legal immigration. Roughly three-fourths of immigrants in the country are here legally. With nearly 12 million immigrants, Mexico was by far the top immigrant-sending country, accounting for 29 percent of all immigrants and 29 percent of growth in the immigrant population from 2000 to 2010. The median age of immigrants in 2010 was 41.4 compared to 35.9 for natives.
57% if immigrant headed households with children are on welfare.
Thank you for the very detailed reply. There are a lot of very interesting figures in there, but I think they may well support the point I was making.
I used the word “Pyramid” on purpose. The Government is running a giant Pyramid Scheme with Entitlements. It REQUIRES the massive imigration and growth numbers you cite to keep the money coming in ahead (or now within borrowing distance) of money going out. I don’t think the people in charge care at all about its long-term survivability. They just don’t want to get caught short, now. When the immigrants get old, they’ll just move the football somewhere else.
The Welfare is an interesting angle, though it, too, could still be being offset by the additional revenue coming in.