Carrying Capacity Network

U.S. POPULATION AND RESOURCES FACTS
May, 2003

Keeping Score on the Costs of Mass Immigration

Population

• The United States' population is now 291 million. If the present growth rate of 1.1% per year (about a 60-year doubling time) continues, the U.S. population will exceed 500 million by 2050 and one billion by 2100. Each year over 3.3 million people are added to the population. From Census Bureau Data
  
  

• Mass Immigration-generated Population Growth. 86.7% of the United States' population growth per year (and 100% in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois) results from mass immigration and children born to U.S. immigrants. Center for Immigration Studies.




• Over one million legal immigrants a year (and 1.5 million in 2001) and over 500,000 illegal immigrants settle in the United States annually. U.S. Census Data

Land and Food Production

• Losing open space. One acre of natural habitat and/or farmland is converted into built-up space or highways for each person added to the U.S. population. Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University.




• Arable Land Disappearing. If present population growth and other trends continue, over the next 60 years, both degradation and urbanization will diminish our arable land base of 470 million acres by 120 million acres. Dr. David

  Northern Virginia. One acre of farmland or habitat is lost by adding one person to the U.S. population. In the effort to accommodate more people, more roads, homes, and shopping plazas are being built.

  Pimentel, Cornell University.




• Globalization = American Headache. The U.S. has introduced more than 50,000 invader species and these organisms are causing more than

  $137 billion in damages per year. The number of species being introduced is increasing rapidly because we have more people traveling and more goods being shipped into the U.S. Dr. Pimentel
  
  

• Arable Land Needed Per Capita. If growth trends continue only 0.6 acres of arable land per person will be available in the U.S.A. in 2050, whereas more than 1.2 acres per person are needed to provide a diverse diet (currently 1.6 acres of arable land available).

Food Exports Diminishing and Oil Imports Increasing

• U.S. Food Exports. Currently, the U.S. earns $40 billion per year as the largest food exporter in the world. If current U.S. population growth trends continue, the U.S. will cease to be able to export food by 2030. About 60% of the oil used in the United States is imported at a cost of $75 billion per year. U.S. oil and gas reserves are depleting, leading to declining oil and stagnant gas production despite more exploration. More imported oil will be needed just to keep pace with a growing population. Where will the money come from? Dr. Pimentel




• Energy Consumption. "From 1970 to 1990– while per capita use hardly budged– total energy consumption increased by 24%. John Holdren (energy specialist, UC Berkeley) states that 93% of the increase in the United States' use of energy in this 20 year period can be traced to population growth." Population Politics, Dr. Virginia Abernethy, Vanderbilt University

Water

• Water Per Capita. Even if water management is substantially improved, the 580 million residents of the U.S.A. by 2070 will only have 770 gallons/day/per capita, considered to be too little if we are to maintain current irrigated crop and livestock production in the U.S.A. Dr. Pimentel




• In Arizona groundwater resources are being depleted on average 10 times faster than recharge rates. Dr. Pimentel




• Resource Scarcity. Drought* conditions are becoming a way of life for Americans west of the Mississippi. Resources are finite for a particular area. U.S. underground aquifers are being drained 25% faster than they are replenished on average, nationwide. Increasing the number of people will only further strain our aquifers and lead to more droughts. Dr. Pimentel

*Drought is measured only in part by the absolute amount of precipitation. As commonly used "drought" means not enough water to keep up with demand.

Infrastructure Burdens

• Overburdened Communities and Schools. Schools in many areas of the country are increasingly overcrowded causing a rapid deterioration of public education. And roads, transportation systems, waste disposal, and healthcare services are alarmingly overburdened. Initial costs to existing residence of adding one person to the average American community is about $15,400. The Cost of Population Growth to Local Communities, Carrying Capacity Network, 1998.




• Overcrowded Hospitals. "Dozens of hospitals in the 28 counties along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California have either closed their doors or face bankruptcy because of losses caused by ‘uncompensated care' given to illegal immigrants." Washington Times, Sept. 24, 2002 A major portion of these costs result from U.S. citizen babies born to illegal alien mothers.

Jobs & the Economy

• Unemployment Increasing. Over 8.8 million Americans are unemployed and that number is increasing. Over 477,000 jobs were lost in March and April, 2003 alone. Even when the U.S. economy stagnates and job opportunities shrink, "push" factors for immigration keep the labor force growing rapidly, and immigrants take American jobs. Despite the recession and the very limited growth in new job opportunities since fall of 2001, the number of employed immigrants has continued to increase...All the decline in net employment over the 2000-2003 period was born by native-born workers.




• Wage Stagnation and Unemployment. Mass immigration costs American workers $152 billion per year in wage depression and job loss. Harvard Professor of Public Policy Dr. George Borjas. Also, the Center for Immigration Studies calculates that "immigration may reduce the wages of the average native in a low-skilled occupation by… $1,915 a year." CIS




• Purchasing Power Loss. "From 1973 to 1998 in an economy that almost doubled in real terms, the wage of the typical worker in production and non-supervisory jobs (80% of the workforce) actually declined by 6% from $13.61 to $12.77 an hour." America's Forgotten Majority, et. Al., Atlantic Monthly 285, No. 6, June 2000




• Welfare Use. Continuing high rates of immigrant welfare use, coupled with increasingly higher levels of new immigration, has meant that the number of immigrant headed households using welfare has increased by 750,000 since 1996. Center for Immigration Studies.




• Taxes. Mass Immigration costs American taxpayers $93.2 billion net (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) annually. Dr. Donald Huddle, Rice University Economist.




• Budget Shortfalls. 2003 promises to be an enormous budget deficit year with an economic slump and National and State budgets deficits reaching unmanageable highs. California alone, for example, is looking at a $35 billion budget deficit. More program cuts on transportation and education are taking place. Mass immigration costs California taxpayers $27 billion net (after subtracting taxes immigrants paid) in 1996. Dr. Donald Huddle, Rice University Economist.

National Security

• Sheer Numbers a National Security Threat. "The massive flows of people across U.S. borders make exclusion of all foreign terrorists impossible." National Commission on Terrorism, June 2000




• Naturalized U.S. Citizen Terrorists. "LPRs (Legal Permanent Residents) and naturalized U.S. citizens comprised one-third of all militant Islamic terrorists over the last decade." Center for Immigration Studies




• Amnestied for Terror. One of the 1993 World Trade Center terrorists, Mahmud Abouhalima, was given permanent resident status under the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens. Center for Immigration Studies




• Porous Borders. "A group of al Qaeda terrorists is attempting to infiltrate the United States from Mexico to conduct attacks in the country. At least 14 al Qaeda members are said to be in Mexico, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Al Qaeda members are working with Mexican organized crime groups, such as drug-trafficking organizations, in an attempt to enter the United States covertly, the officials said." Washington Times, April 7, 2003




• Document Insecurity. Mexican consuls have been aggressively lobbying state and local governments and institutions to accept the Matricula Consular card as valid identification. The only people who need such cards are illegal aliens in the U.S. All others have U.S. government issued ID. Thirteen states, many banks, and some police department and government agencies are accepting the cards and some are mulling the idea of allowing the card to be used as a prerequisite for obtaining a driver's license. Copley News Service, February 4, 2003

Disease

• Tuberculosis on the Rise. The foreign-born population comprised 42% of all TB incidence in the United States in 1999, up from 22% in 1986. TB is expected to escalate nationwide and has already increased dramatically in California, New York City, and Northern Virginia. Newer strains of the TB virus are anti-biotic resistant. Center for Disease Control




• Foreign Born Measles. The Center for Disease Control recently declared that the only cases of measles in the U.S. since 1998 have been immigrants.




• West Nile Virus is a new arrival and last year, according to the CDC, more than 4,000 people were infected with WNV and their were nearly 300 deaths. This problem is growing despite the large quantities of pesticides being applied, causing various environmental problems.

Solving the Problem Where it Starts!

The negative impacts of mass immigration are overwhelming. We cannot solve these problems in the middle or long term without addressing the root cause– mass immigration. A moratorium on mass immigration is needed. CCN doesn't suggest that all of our problems will be solved when a moratorium is enacted, but we do suggest that it is the single, greatest step toward solving these problems.

The Solution– An Essential First Step

CCN supports immediate enactment of a 5-year moratorium on all immigration in excess of 100,000 immigrants annually (the highest number which would ever allow the U.S. population to eventually stabilize). CCN supports the enforcement of existing laws requiring apprehension and deportation of all illegal aliens.

What Open Border Groups and certain Big Media aren't telling you:

• The level of legal immigration has doubled in the last twenty years




• Between 1776 and 1884, we received roughly 2 immigrants per day; in the 1990's, we admitted two immigrants a minute.




• In the last 15 years, the US has admitted more immigrants than it did in the previous 50 years

Source: 1776-1996 INS Statistics Division and U.S. Census Bureau & 2000-2002 Current Population Survey U.S. Census Bureau.