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The issue of overpopulation in the U.S. greatly affects our use of natural resources not only from a consumption standpoint, but also from a production (using water to grow crops) and pollution perspective. Take our supply of fresh water as an example. Because immigration is responsible for two-thirds of U.S. population growth, it plays a key role in our growing water crisis, and as immigration adds more than one million people to our population each year, demands for water increase drastically. U.S. Geological Survey associate director Robert M. Hirsch says that some parts of the country are depleting water that has been around since the Ice Age. Several major Southwest cities, such as El Paso, San Antonio, and Albuquerque, will face water crises in ten to 20 years. California water officials predict that the state will be short between 2.4 million and 6 million acre-feet of water (an acre-foot is about enough water to supply two typical families for a year) by 2020. Every newcomer to the state adds a demand of about 140 gallons of water every day to the already depleted supply. Reducing immigration levels to a much more manageable level would help us understand these issues and begin applying conservation principles that will vastly extend the lifetime of our most sought-after natural resources. For more information and statistics view the Immigration Issue Center Environment of our Web site.

In the U.S., even people with the lowest energy usage account for, on average, more than double the global per-capita carbon emission. When people immigrate to the U.S., they are integrated into our lifestyle, and therefore increase worldwide emissions. In fact, a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies found that U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually - 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries! But the issue doesn’t just relate to climate change, it also closely impacts what happens within the U.S. at the local level (see our answer in the previous question) when natural resources become scarce and species are exposed to extinction from overpopulation, urban sprawl and competition for resources. We must ask ourselves how we can best take care of the current U.S. population, native or immigrant. Immigration, because of the difference in fertility rates and the growing number of new immigrants every year, is responsible for a disproportionate amount of U.S. population growth. Although immigrants made up less ten percent of the U.S. population in the 1990s, they were responsible for 54 percent of the population growth (counting births to immigrants as immigrant births rather than as native births). Certainly, residents of the U.S. need to strive to shrink the size of their carbon footprint and use of natural resources. Reducing immigration will help us find the best solution for the problems that affect us today and any into the future.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the foreign-born population increased by over six million between 2000 and 2006 a 19.4% increase. Due to the difference in fertility rates between native and foreign-born and the growing number of new immigrants every year, immigration is responsible for at least three-fourths of U.S. population growth. Although immigrants were under ten percent of the U.S. population in the 1990s, they were responsible for 54 percent of the population growth (counting births to immigrants as immigrant births rather than as native births). In town after town throughout the U.S., communities are finding that population growth is overcrowding schools, clogging roads, swallowing up open space, taxing the environment, and raising the cost of living for all. At a current level of approximately 300 million in population, a recent FAIR study estimated that at our current growth, the U.S. could potentially grow to between 443 and 460 million by 2050 or even higher if immigration is again increased. For more information and statistics click here.

No, not at all! We are proud of the significant role that immigrants played in building this country over the past two hundred years, and value the great sense of community and proud culture that immigrants brought with them in making the U.S. the greatest place on earth. However, our country today is not the same as a decade ago. Our population has grown enormously and our economy does not need unskilled labor today as it did during the industrial revolution. We cannot possibly sustain our current way of living unless current immigration levels are addressed quickly. We would like to see immigration levels into this country re-evaluated so to give us a chance to catch up and enable our society to properly address the needs of current citizens. We all would love to be living in a perfect world where everyone is taken care of in a comfortable manner, but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and given the many problems faced by both this country and the world overall, now is the time to start seriously addressing this issue. A time-out on immigration would ease the pressure on the environment and give us a chance to repair our institutions. Common sense dictates that we must stop adding new burdens to institutions and systems that are struggling. Making real environmental headway and repairing our failing educational and health care systems will be all but impossible as long as we continue today's high immigration levels. Lowering our immigration levels would allow the millions of recent immigrants to pursue the American dream. Our ability to successfully absorb and assimilate immigrants in our recent history has been facilitated by adopting periods of restricted immigration. A break from current high levels would allow recent immigrants to fulfill their aspirations as previous waves of immigrants have.