Posted on 09/01/2007 8:36:35 AM PDT by processing please hold
If both legal and illegal immigration continues at its current pace, the U.S. population will grow by 1.25 million per year and reach a net total of 468 million by 2060, according to a report issued Thursday by a Washington think tank.
That increase of 167 million people over the next 53 years "is equal to the combined populations of Great Britain, France and Spain," said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), during a news conference at the National Press Club.
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Camarota wrote in his report, "100 Million More: Projecting the Impact of Immigration on the U.S. Population, 2007 to 2060," that "about 1.6 million new legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year. About 350,000 immigrants go home, so net immigration is about 1.25 million."
Immigrants who will arrive in the future and their descendants "will account for 105 million, or 63 percent of the increase," a total that by itself "is equal to 13 New York Cities," he said.
"If the United States actually started enforcing its immigration laws and reduced illegal immigration, that would have a very significant impact on future population increases," Camarota said. However, net immigration "has been increasing to the United States for about five decades."
"While illegal immigration is certainly a very large number, the overwhelming majority of the population increase will come from legal immigration, which is very high," he said. "Last year, for example, the United States allowed 1.2 million people to settle in the country permanently on a legal basis."
"The central question these projections raise and the American people must answer is what costs and benefits come from having a much larger population and a more densely settled country," he added.
Roy Beck, executive director of Numbers USA, said during a panel discussion on the report that he found the study "thoroughly depressing" and "a devastating prognosis for the country" because of what its data predict about the future quality of life in America.
"Every time an American complains about traffic congestion, infrastructure overload, private schools, loss of natural habitat, the possibility to get out of town and have some spiritual recreation in nature, that is a result of federal policy" on immigration, he said.
However, Ben Wattenberg, senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), responded that despite the findings in the report, he considers the U.S. to be "under-populated" as evidenced by all the "flyover country" he sees when traveling "from sea to shining sea."
The AEI scholar dismissed the phrase "'population explosion,' which we have been told is something to dread. That is putting into two words something that can be put in one, which is 'growth.' The question is whether or not that growth is harmful."
"In 1790, there were 4 million Americans in our first census. Today, there are 301 million in the country, a 75-fold increase," he said. "Now, what happened to that nation, which suffered from the most terrible population explosion? It became the most prosperous and influential nation in human history - so what's the problem?"
Wattenberg also said America "is a wonderful place to live, because wonderful people live here," but there is "always some kind of nativist, anti-immigrant feeling." All immigrant groups "start out being hated," but one or two generations later, "they end up being assimilated into U.S. society."
Today's "hate du jour" is toward Mexicans, even though the largest percentage of Medal of Honor winners are Mexican immigrants, he added.
"I hope you're not suggesting that anybody who's critical of current immigration levels is wearing a white sheet," Camarota replied.
Regarding history, "World War I came along in 1914, as well as restrictive legislation in the 1920s, and immigration was low for about 50 or 60 years," he continued. "If that's to be our guide, then we need to have low immigration for many years so we can assimilate the immigrants already here."
"Immigration is not the weather. It is not something outside our control," Camarota added. "What the American people have to decide is whether they want to live in the society these projections lead us to."
It certainly is. Funny thing is, when I was at the Statue of Liberty last summer, I didn’t see the caption that reads: “bring us your sick, lame, and lazy & your blind, deaf, and crazy”
Somehow I don't think the people of Brownsville or any other border city would agree with that.
You would think that 300M is plenty. But the economy must continually GROW—and the sure way for that to make that happen is to add more people. Of course, many business don’t care whether those people are assimilated or not. For good or ill, corporations have no real national alliegence—only an alliegence to “The Market”.
Maybe one of our politician will hire a well known leftist OBL artist to get right to work and start chiseling away to include it.
Sometimes posters on here say things that I can't process because of the pure asinine meaning to their statement.
Every morning I wake up hoping to be just like India or China then I realize, shoot, I'm still just an American.
The middle class in our country will be wiped out if the OBL get their way.
It is estimated that by 2050, California will increase its population by over 30,000. It is already at 30,000+. Most of which, in Southern California are Hispanic. Wanta guess where the additional people are going to come from?
Wanta guess where the additional people are going to come from?
Every country south of our border?
The law breaker illegals are not welcome.
Exactly!
This statement is NOT true. Out of the (+/-)4000 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients; 40 were of Latino descent.
see[among other sources]:
Latino Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients
The site gives much needed recognition to these brave patriots who were Latino, and real. They should not be insulted by some false percentage claim for political reasons.
Population of the US over 1 billion by 2100 ping.
Thank you for the link.
I'm so sick of hearing anti immigrant! It's not anti immigrant, it's anti illegal alien! Sorry for yelling. It's so frustrating when they keep harping that if we are against the invasion of our country we're either Xenophobes or racists. I don't care if they're purple, if they're illegal, throw 'em out. When will they ever learn to distinguish between the two words legal and illegal?
:)
The offspring of Mexican colonists will swamp us, each colonista having 4 - 6 kids.
The population of the US in 1950 was 150 million and last year we passed 300 million so adding 150 million in 50 years is not much of a stretch. By the way there are a heck of a lot of Iowa and Kansas farm towns that have been deserted and could use a little immigration. Might find that immigration would be great for the MS. gulf coast and New Orleans too.
Yup, "All hail the market!" /sarcasm
/jasper.
That’s OK, Americans will abort 100 million babies in that same timespan.
Nobody seems to care about that number.
We are overpopulated as it is.
End ALL immigration now, before overpopulation ends our few remaining freedoms.
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