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Thanx for this link M!

Conclusions
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The high rate of increase in immigration during the 1990s can be characterized as "sociological shock." The 11.3 million (or 57 percent) increase, from 19.8 million in 1990 to 31.1 million in 2000, is unprecedented in the history of the United States, both numerically and proportionately. Even during the great wave of immigration from 1900 to 1910, the foreign-born population grew by only 3.2 million (or 31 percent) from 10.3 million to 13.5 million. The foreign-born population increased from 7.9 percent of the total population in 1990 to 11.1 percent in 2000. If current trends continue, the percentage of the population that is foreign-born will surpass by the end of this decade the all-time high of 14.8 percent, registered in 1890.

< The unparalleled boom in immigration directly impacts critical issues such as politics and social welfare programs. In 2000, according to the United States Census, immigrants accounted for 5.5 percent of all registered voters. However, only 37 percent of immigrants are naturalized citizens and thus eligible to vote.

< The proportion of eligible immigrant households using welfare programs is 30 to 50 percent higher than that of native households. One-third of immigrants do not have health insurance; this is nearly 2.5 times the rate of the native population. As a result, immigrants who arrived after 1989 and their U.S. born children account for 60 percent, or 5.5 million, of the increase in the size of the uninsured population. The boom in immigration has also played a large role in the increase in public school enrollment. In 2000, there were 8.6 million school-age children from immigrant families in the United States.

< Increases in immigration have also given rise to new security concerns. In recent years the United States has attempted to prevent most undocumented immigrants from entering illegally. In 2000, the INS reported that 184,775 undocumented immigrants were formally removed from the country. Of this total, 150,068, or over 90 percent, were originally from Mexico. The total number of formal removals has increased more than 150 percent since 1996.

< Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, border apprehensions have decreased. According to the INS, border apprehensions at the Mexican border between October 2001 and February 2002 were at their lowest figure in 17 years. This was due in part to a decline in economic prosperity in the United States and also a substantial rise in the cost of illegally entering the country. Another effect of the September 11, 2001 terrorist acts and the weakened economic conditions has been a decrease in the number of work visas issued to immigrants. Approximately 60,500 temporary visas for immigrants with special computer-related or other technical skills were issued from October 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002, in contrast to 130,700 issued in the same period during the previous fiscal year, according to the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service.

< Many possible solutions to the problem of illegal Mexican immigration to the United States have been discussed. The Bush administration rejects a proposal similar to that of IRCA, passed in 1986, because it believes that IRCA proved ineffective in stemming illegal Mexican migration and also that the INS is currently too over-burdened to adopt such a measure. One of the alternatively proposed solutions is a guest-worker program that would permit unauthorized Mexicans already in the United States to obtain a temporary legal status and subsequently would admit additional Mexican workers to fill jobs throughout the U.S. economy. The bill would ensure that guest workers return to Mexico when their work permits expire and would raise sanctions on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, in order to encourage them to employ legal workers.

Sorry for all the duplicate posts I keep getting internal errors and have emailed FR's webmaster

BUMP!

The immigrant population is growing 6.5 times faster than the native-born population. The 31.1 million immigrants found in the 2000 Census is unparalleled in American history. It is more than triple the 9.6 million in 1970 and more than double the 14.1 million in 1980. The absolute size of the foreign-born population is at an all-time high.

Facts don't like..This is what is really going on!