FACTS / MYTHS

Let's review a few basics first.  Immigrants have enhanced America.  Immigrants and illegal aliens are neither inherently good nor inherently bad.  Legal immigrants come to America with the explicit  approval of Congress and thus all Americans.  Illegal aliens come here with an implicit 'blind eye' approval.  Thus, illegal immigration problems are due essentially to inaction of Congress, law enforcement, and ultimately American citizens.  To fix our dysfunctional immigration system, Americans need to educate and change legal, political, educational, environmental, labor and religious institutions. Over-immigration is not inevitable nor is the doubling of U.S. population this century that it will cause.

Legal immigrants deserve respect.  Illegal aliens are law breakers who do not deserve jobs, amnesty, educational subsidies, driver's licenses, and other benefits at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.  Illegal aliens first should be encouraged to Go Home voluntarily and then humanely deported as the law requires. Once the public recognizes that jobs and benefits equal encouragement the public will truly press for the flow to cease.  Amnesties for illegal aliens have clearly made the problem worse and should be vigorously opposed.

Unfortunately many Americans do not honestly debate immigration policy because they are woefully ignorant of the facts, especially on the negative effects of mass migration.  There are upwards of 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. today.  Immigration today is almost quadruple the traditional level.  Immigration has accounted for over 70% of U.S. population growth since 1970. See chart. Immigration has contributed significantly to school overcrowding, traffic congestion, the health care crisis, environmental degradation, social tension, and other negative impacts on our country.  Yet pro-mass migration forces, including the politically correct media, cheap labor advocates and ethnic pandering politicians, rarely acknowledge the down-side of mass migration.  See the internet sites listed in National Sites for unadulterated information describing negative mass migration impacts because generally the media fails to do so.  For example, school overcrowding is usually blamed on "The Baby Boom Echo", but the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recently released a shocking and  enlightening report on the real reason behind school overcrowding: The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration's Impact on Public Education. Consider distributing or presenting the report to your local school board.   How often is our health care crisis attibuted to mass migration?  Rarely if ever.  Because the costs of mass migration have long been ignored by the media and politicians a huge dose of honest debate on the negative impacts of mass migration is long overdue.

Myths about immigration abound.  Often those favoring immigration reduction are called racist or anti-immigrant but the truth is nearly all immigration reductionists favor immigration and immigrants, but at a drastically reduced level.   Americans need to stand above the name calling and speak the truth.  For example, is America being true to its values by creating and exploiting the illegal alien underclass at the expense of our own working poor?  Is America helping other countries raise their quality of life by recruiting their high-tech workers, doctors and nurses?  Is America really addressing national security by promoting a virtually open border?

History has shown that illegal immigration is highly correlated to legal immigration. In other words, reduction of illegal immigration will only occur when legal immigration levels are reduced.  To learn more on the correlation, see this report from Center for Immigration Studies.  For additional reasonable and achievable actions to reduce illegal immigration see www.NumbersUSA.com.

Five Biggest Immigration Myths is a great article.