Dear Editor:
In response to your editorial, "The Gauntlet is Thrown", Bush's mega-amnesty notion and the Hagel-Daschle proposal for
implementing it would be unmitigated disasters for the nation. The presence of 8-10 million illegal aliens in the US, the daily
entry of thousands more, and their contribution to a US population
growth rate that is higher than that of many third world countries is
due to one factor. That is the failure of the federal government to enforce many of our immigration laws. With aggressive interior enforcement, and perhaps some increase in penalties for lawbreakers, we could solve most of the existing
problems rather efficiently. In part this would be achieved by
creating a system with strong incentives for self-deportation.
No version of Bush's plan could work unless it also involved
aggressive interior enforcement of immigration law. But Bush, Hagel
and Daschle do not even suggest such. To seek a permanent increase in immigration quotas makes no sense.
Anyone who cares a whit for the future of their children or
grandchildren knows that population stabilization must be our
national objective. To achieve that, total immigration (legal and illegal) must be about the same as total emigration, and not ten
times greater as is now the case.
Since 1990, immigrants and births to first generation
immigrants have accounted for more than 98% of California's population
growth. This is because, among citizens, births and deaths are about
equal because and about the same number of people have left
California for other states as have moved here from other states.
The net effect of this immigration-driven rush to third world status
is that the California population is growing by about 5 million
people per decade. In other words, every ten years we have to find
space and resources in California for a new population equal to that
now living in Los Angeles. Things are just as bad in many other parts
of the country.
The bipartisan irresponsibility with which immigration issues are
being dealt with is overwhelming. With good reason, growing numbers
of citizens feel betrayed by the President and Congress. Caveat
Caesar et legislatores, the citizens with pitchforks.
Stuart H. Hurlbert
San Diego, California
Copyright © 1999-2002 American Immigration LLC, ILW.COM
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