I am worried that some members of Congress will try to pass increases in immigration during the lame duck Congress. Will you pledge to your constituents that you will not do that?

I am horrified to think that, unless Congress reduces immigration levels, U.S. population will grow from 203 million in 1970 to 400 million by the year 2050! That is the equivalent of adding the number of people currently living east of the Mississippi (approximately 200 million) to the existing population. Imagine that!

Very few people think that this level of growth is a good thing, yet Congress continues to let it happen and even considers doubling it (as the Senate bill S. 2611 would have)! Some proponents of this massive growth argue that we need immigrants to take care of an aging white America. I reject that argument for multiple reasons.

First, a large proportion of immigrants come from Latin or Hispanic countries. I don’t believe we should justify high immigration numbers by reasoning that we need one racial population to “take care of” another.

Also, the flood of cheap labor makes it very difficult for anyone (citizen or immigrant alike) in a low-skilled job to ever hope for a middle-class lifestyle. In fact, the gap between rich and poor has expanded since immigration numbers have gone through the roof.

Finally, the non-partisan Population Reference Bureau (PRB) notes that the poverty rates for children have exceeded poverty rates for elderly Americans for more than 40 years. A growing proportion of children in the U.S. are immigrants (or children of immigrants) and Hispanic and black children are three-to-four times as likely to live in poverty than whites. Linda Jacobsen of PRB says that “Unless we can reduce age, racial and ethnic disparities in poverty, children from minority groups may be less able and less willing, as they grow up, to support the predominantly white elderly population.”

These are just a few reasons why I reject our current high immigration numbers. The population explosion of the last 40 years has not helped American citizens or immigrants. I think it is time we returned to more traditional levels of immigration and worked to help the vulnerable members of our society.

Please do not allow any immigration increases during the lame duck session.

Phone me if you would like to talk about this,

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA

P.S. Massive third-world immigration is a weapon of mass destruction.

Sent to:
Jerry Lewis