Our Immigration Policy Is Bankrupt! 
Dated July 26, 2007

       Is it enough to end all illegal immigration? More and more politicians claim they want to end the influx of illegals, but say and do nothing about the legal number coming in. If the total number coming in is still more than the country can absorb, what good has ultimately been accomplished by barring only the illegals? For quite some time, the numbers of legal immigrants entering the country have, in fact, been far more than we can assimilate. What is more the legal immigration policy of the past 40 or more years will devastate our country and culture in the long run. Chain migration--legals bringing in other family members from their former country--is a big part of the problem. The following chart, courtesy of Numbers USA, shows that our immigration policy is bankrupt.

The following chart depicts LEGAL IMMIGRATION and ITS EFFECTS.
It does NOT include illegal immigration.

       More About This Chart:--
In the words of Numbers USA (http://www.numbersusa.com) ...
"[The darker grey bloc] represents all the [legal] immigrants (above the
replacement level of 222,000) who have arrived or are projected to
arrive -- since 1970, plus their descendants, minus deaths. ... [The lighter
grey bloc] represents US population growth due to the descendants
of 1970-stock Americans. It assumes that these 'old-stock' Americans
will continue their present fertility and mortality rates. There were 203
million people living in the US in 1970. ... [The lighter grey bloc] also
accounts for replacement-level immigration, which the Census Bureau
estimates at 222,000 a year. ... To find similar population growth in
foreign countries, we must look to the Third World."

       Let us return to an immigration policy that approximates the golden age of immigration, that is, the period 1925 to 1965. The total number of legals we admitted in those days--180,000 on average per year–or approximately one-tenth of 1% of the total population per year--were assimilated. The number of illegals were usually negligible. Today, legal immigration is growing at about one-third of 1% of the total population per year, and illegal growth is also at about one-third of 1%. If there were a moratorium on all forms of immigration, many years would pass before we had fully assimilated those already here. We should, I think, no matter what, return legal immigration to about one-tenth of 1% of the total population per year.  

       In the 1920s, the country faced a situation not unlike today. For the previous 40 years or so, immigration had gotten out of control, and 580,000 legal immigrants came in on average each year. The Robber Barons of those days were the culprits, turning to Europe for labor, instead of making full use of labor already here. In the 1920s, Congress mandated an approximately three-fourths reduction in the amount of legal immigration over the period 1880-1924. Since 1990, the government has been allowing approximately 1 million immigrants to come in legally each year, and about as many illegals to come in each year. Today, Congress should take courage; act like the leaders of old, and institute true immigration reform, namely, barring all illegals and bringing legal immigration down to about 300,000 people per year.

       Reductions in immigration should be gradual. The phasing in of immigration reform should be over a number of years, giving businesses and the rest of us time to adjust.

       Some businesses may be unhappy with immigration reform in the short run. But what good is it to them (and the rest of us), if their labor is cheap in the short run and the Republic is lost in the long run? Enough labor is already here. Also, as the economy revives, there will be ample compensations for those businesses that pay Americans a decent wage.

       How should the immigration problem be solved? New legislation would lower legal immigration numbers according to a reasonable schedule. Attrition through law enforcement would backstop the legislation. There would be random searches. Businesses that break the law would be prosecuted. Illegal immigrants would be rounded up and sent back deep beyond our own borders. In time, fewer businesses and fewer foreigners would dare breach the immigration laws.

       President Eisenhower showed how to bring the illegal immigration problem under control in four months. What is more, he deployed approximately one-tenth the border patrol forces now in place, and needed no border fence. General Joseph “Jumpin Joe” Swing, a West Point graduate and veteran of the 101st Airborne Division, was made commissioner of the Internal Naturalization Service. The new commissioner enjoyed especially close connections to the president, shielding the former from retaliation from businesses, politicians and bureaucrats alike. He transferred entrenched, high level immigration officials from the border regions to other places far beyond the borders, where their political connections would have no effect. Raids were conducted in the southern border states. Tens of thousands of illegals were rounded up and transported, via bus, rail and boat, to points far, far beyond our own country. On June 17, 1954, General Swing went into action along the southern border. By September, 80,000 illegals had been rounded up in Texas, for instance, and another estimated 500,000 to 700,000 illegals at large in Texas had left the country voluntarily. What began as an immense nation-wide problem, numbering approximately 3 million illegals, would end in success in short order. Thereafter, President John Kennedy perpetuated the recovery.