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Carrying Capacity Network Action Alert New Health Threat to Americans! Mass immigration bringing (ever more) new diseases to the U.S.

   September 2005

Now more than ever a moratorium is crucial to Stem the Tide and Prevent an Epidemic

"Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come." "Disease, unwanted import," The Washington Times, 2/13/05

Of course, not every immigrant comes to the U.S. carrying a deadly disease. But just the sheer numbers involved means that the infective opportunities are much greater. With literally millions of immigrants pouring over our borders from third world countries, often with no health checks, it is inevitable that a significant number are going to be (often unknowing) vectors of disease transmission.

Leprosy. Tuberculosis. Polio. Most Americans think of such dreaded diseases as relics of history, long eradicated from the United States. The frightening truth is that Americans are increasingly at risk of being infected by a number of diseases which have either never been seen before in the U.S. or have been virtually unheard of for decades, centuries even.

Recent studies show these and other potentially fatal and disabling diseases have made their way into the United States via immigration and that cases are rapidly increasing.

Leprosy Leprosy, the disfiguring and contagious skin disease evoking for most people images of Biblical times, is re-emerging in the U.S. Now known as Hansen’s disease, the condition causes lesions on the bones, skin, mucous membranes and peripheral nervous system. If leprosy affects the nervous system, victims may lose sensation in their limbs and often injure themselves causing further injuries and disfigurement unknowingly. Speaking on the increasing number of leprosy cases in the U.S., Representative J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) told the Business Journal of Phoenix: " . . . in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented." A Columbia University study found that the number of cases of leprosy among immigrants has more than doubled since 2000.

Chagas Chagas is an agonizing and sometimes fatal disease that can cause abnormal enlargement of the esophagus and colon, and congestive heart failure. Known as the "kissing bug" disease because it most often affects the face, Chagas is a tropical infectious disease transmitted by the bite of a blood-sucking insect or through blood transfusion. Approximately 10 to 30 percent of people diagnosed with Acute Chagas Disease develop "chronic" Chagas Disease. In Latin America, Chagas infects 18 million people and causes 50,000 deaths annually with no effective cure. In 2001, three people in the U.S. received Chagas infected organ transplants, indicating exposure of the U.S. blood supply to the disease. Two died. According to Dr. Louis B. Kirchhoff, a Chagas specialist at the University of Iowa’s medical school, federal data suggest that of the thousand Mexicans that emigrate to the U.S. daily, about 10 percent most likely are infected with Chagas.

Avian Influenza (bird flu)

The bird flu epidemic that has swept across Asia and resulted in the deaths or slaughter of over 100 million domestic birds has U.S. disease experts forecasting a pandemic that that could sicken 90 million Americans and kill more than 200,000. The disease has now made the jump to humans, killing at least 42 people in Asia last year. Symptoms range from typical flu-like symptoms to eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory distress and other severe complications. The mortality rate is high, about 72 percent in patients having been identified as catching the flu.

Bird flu spreads to the U.S.: In November, 2003, a patient with severe respiratory symptoms was admitted to a New York hospital and remained there for several weeks before recovering. Tests revealed that the patient had been infected with an avian influenza virus. In February 2004, an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu was detected in a flock of 7,000 chickens in Gonzales County in south-central Texas. The birds were slaughtered. Also in 2004, bird flu was detected in poultry in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Neurocysticercosis

Neurocysticercosis is a potentially fatal disease caused by a species of tapeworm, Taenia solium. It affects the nervous system and can cause seizures. The disease is rapidly spreading in border towns and communities with "colonias" (rusted out trailers and shanties nailed together with packing pallets or whatever is available). There is no sanitation, toilets, showers, or clean water in these "colonias." Tapeworms easily flourish in unsanitary conditions, as eggs can be transmitted through a lack of hand washing. Neurocysticercosis appears to be on the rise in the U.S. After the death of an infected Oregon teenager, an investigation revealed that the disease had caused 89 hospitalizations and six deaths in that state alone from 1995 – 2000.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that causes coughing up of clouded or bloody mucus, rapid heartbeat and swelling in the neck caused by infected lymph nodes. Although TB was nearly eliminated in the U.S., it has been on the rise again since the 1980s in high immigration areas. Personnel with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of TB Elimination have said in various reports that "immigration is a major force that sustains the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States." In a 2004 CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers found that TB cases among foreign-born individuals were disproportionately high, nearly 9 times the rate of a person born within the U.S.

The increase in TB cases also affects local budgets. In New York City the TB treatment budget was stable for years at approximately $2 million a year. By the early 1990s, the cost of fighting new TB cases was growing at upwards of $50 million annually.

The list continues to grow . . . According to a report from The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JP&S), the number of diseases invading our country is growing: The dreaded and disabling polio, once eradicated from this country, is now being seen in illegal immigrants. Malaria was once wiped out, but has re-emerged in Texas. Dengue fever, extremely rare in the U.S., re-emerged last year in a Texas border town in the form of a virulent outbreak. 1.3 million chickens were slaughtered in California in 2002 after contracting Exotic New Castle disease from roosters imported by illegal aliens for cockfighting. The JP&S report concludes with a strong prescription for protecting Americans’ health:

1. Close America’s borders
2. Rescind the citizenship of anchor babies
3. Punish the crime of aiding and abetting illegal aliens
4. Grant no new amnesties

STRATEGY TO KEEP THE U.S.A. SAFE: PUSHING A MORATORIUM

We must act to protect Americans from the threat of devastating outbreaks of deadly and disfiguring diseases. The most important step we can take now is to substantially reduce immigration. We must insist on a moratorium on all legal immigration in excess of 100,000 per year, and a NO vote on any and all illegal alien amnesties, "guest worker", "earned legalization", or "regularization" bills that will bring even more illegal aliens surging across the border.

Take Action Now

Call, write, and fax your senators and representatives today and urge them to oppose any amnesty, guest worker, earned legalization, and regularization bills.

Most importantly, ask your representatives to cosponsor a bill enacting a moratorium on all immigration in excess of 100,000 per year. This is essential to reducing illegal immigration (because it reduces the "family magnet" and "safe harbor" effects inter alia) and achieving U.S. population stabilization and a sustainable USA.

CCN staff has been hard at work on Capitol Hill, and we anticipate the introduction of a new Immigration Moratorium Bill any day now. But do not wait. Let Congress know how you feel today.

You can reach your senators and representatives by calling the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Fax and E-Mail contact information for your legislators is available at .

Take Action Now to Protect Americans!