NOTE: EARTH DAY ALERT!

NPG was founded only two years after the very first Earth Day. For 35 years, hundreds of our members have carried our message to countless Earth Day fairs and activities across America. Members will often volunteer to man an NPG booth, speak out at community environmental forums or simply make sure our NPG educational materials find their way into public libraries and schools. Earth Day gives us all a moment to pause and focus on our future -- and decide what we can do to protect and preserve our quality of life.

If you have an interest in obtaining an assortment of NPG materials for Earth Day-related activities in your local area, please contact us within the next few weeks. We will gladly ship you an Earth Day Kit that includes brochures, fact sheets, our 300 Million Population poster and some bumper stickers. Call us at 703-370-9510 or fax us at 703-370-9514. Remember to include a mailing address and contact number. Remember, a vast array of population-related information can also be accessed via our website at www.npg.org. Thank you.


FEATURED STORIES

Two Communities- Two Approaches to Illegals
Three Mile Traffic Backups - In Idaho, No Less!
Starting the Conversation in South Carolina


COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann


The old dictum of "follow the money" is alive and well in Washington, D.C..

Recently, we were told about how Speaker Pelosi had to "buy" the votes of reluctant Congressmen with billions of dollars of costly "pork" to get votes for the resolution that sets a date certain for troops to be out of Iraq. Sadly, the backroom deals for that legislation - and the enormous price paid to get it passed -- may well foreshadow the political gimmickry and back-room political arm-twisting that is sure to accompany the forthcoming debate on immigration reform legislation.

Only days after I wrote in the last edition of the NPG Journal that a major immigration reform bill had yet to emerge this year, the brand-new, bipartisan Flake-Gutierrez STRIVE Act of 2007 (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy), H.R. 1645, popped onto the scene and was heartily welcomed by a full slate of pro-amnesty politicians.

While this is billed as "new" legislation, it is essentially the same amnesty bill that passed the U.S. Senate last year with a few twists and tweaks to make it more palatable to some fence-sitting lawmakers. Few average citizens are aware of its massive problems. Negative Population Growth along with the dozens of other citizen groups who see the dangers in passing this legislation are already laying out our plans to rally millions of Americans to fight it with every bit of grassroots activism we can muster. However, just as last year, we are going to be up against a rich and powerful array of special interest groups - especially businesses who want to keep wages low -- that thrive on a steady flow of low-wage immigrants and want our borders as porous as possible. The name of the bill alone - incorporating such key words as "security", "regularized" and "vibrant economy" should set alarms ringing. These comforting buzzwords are only a precursor to the rich array of propaganda that proponents are ready to feed the American people in order to get them to accept this horribly flawed legislation that will pose great danger to our nation's future.

This is not the forum to outline all of the unsound details of H.R. 1645. NPG will soon post a short summary of this legislation on our website. But suffice it to say that it gives the pro-amnesty crowd absolutely everything they want -- and then some. Typical of such catch-all legislation, the current wording in the bill is rich in generalities and very short on details - and costs.

Speaking from NPG's perspective I can tell you right now that what is very, very wrong with this legislation - and enough to kill it outright -- is the massive impact it would have on our nation's population in the coming decades. It would permit an untold number of illegals (current estimates run as high as 20 million people) to stay in our country and open the door for a new "guest worker" program that would give the green light to 400,000 more people a year to work here. Those numbers do not even begin to include the inevitable "family chain migration" that would bring countless millions more people - numbering in the tens of millions. Rest assured that NPG will do everything in its power to make sure every Senator and Congressman is aware of the huge population increases that are sure to result from passage of this bill.

Years ago, show emcees would take the stage and after each act tell the audience to, "Stick around, you ain't seen nothin' yet!" That's the best way to look at the upcoming immigration debate. Back then, the emcees were promoting more entertainment. Today, if the major parts of the Flake-Gutierrez STRIVE Act get through Congress few Americans will be laughing.


TWO COMMUNITIES - TWO APPROACHES TO ILLEGALS

Get tough or get friendly? Those are but two of the options local communities have these days in dealing with illegal immigrants. This short NBC News story tells the tale of Suffolk County, New York and a city directly across the Long Island Sound, New Haven, Connecticut. It highlights the dilemma faced by thousands of jurisdictions all across the nation when federal officials fail to do their duty to protect our borders. Click on the link above for a more complete summary of the full report.


THREE MILE TRAFFIC BACKUPS – IN IDAHO, NO LESS!

Population-related stories can be found everyday in the news across America. However, we chose this article from the Idaho Statesman to remind one and all that traffic jams aren't exclusive to jurisdictions with populations that run in the hundreds of thousands or millions. The dire need for a new highway ramp in Treasure Valley, Idaho stands as a perfect example of the rich assortment of new, unforeseen problems - from the need for more schools, firehouses and emergency rooms to just how to build and expand current roads - that are impacting once placid areas. Click on the link above for the full story.


STARTING THE CONVERSATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Here at NPG we applaud any elected leader who has the vision to look to the future - and the guts to take action now to plan for it.

Today, we salute South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. According to this article from The Charleston Post and Courier, this forward-looking leader recognizes that the Palmetto State is "at the tipping point" in facing a population boom that's expected to bring a million more people into South Carolina by 2030 (current population is approximately 4,250,000).

Sanford called a statewide land-use conference last week to address traffic, water quality, development and other issues being driven by the state's rapidly rising population. It certainly isn't easy to get all of the various factions involved in these areas to agree on what needs to be done and Governor Sanford should be praised for getting everybody into one room to begin talking about the role they can play to lessen population pressures. Now, NPG has to start rallying our members in South Carolina to work on Governor Sanford to start the ball rolling on a South Carolina Population Policy that will give some heft to taking this issue beyond the talking stage. Click on the link above for the full story.


POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

623,000 FUGITIVE ALIENS "AT LARGE" IN AMERICA

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged last week that while the federal government has spent $204 million since 2003 to hunt down and remove fugitive aliens from our country the program has had little success. According to DHS's Office of Inspector General, more than 623,000 fugitive aliens or "absconders" are currently roaming the streets of America. This number is up from 331,000 in 2001 and 418,000 in 2003.

NATURALIZATIONS UP AMONG IMMIGRANTS

The Pew Hispanic Center released a study this week that found the number of naturalized citizens in the U.S grew to nearly 13 million between 1995 and 2005, "a historic increase that reflects the nation's changing ethnic makeup and could increase the power of immigrants to affect public policy at the ballot box" according to the Washington Post.

The study showed that "Since 1995, the average number of yearly naturalizations has surpassed 650,000, compared with 150,000 in 1970."

Mexicans led the list of those naturalized with a 144% increase over 10 years and Jeffery Passel, the Center's senior research associate, noted that this number could have been much higher because "Mexicans are the least likely of all groups to naturalize."

Immigrants from Cuba, China and the Philippines were the next largest groups. Passel noted that most settled in California, New York, Texas and Florida.


QUOTABLE

"It is important that I call upon Members, don't sign off on something till you read the fine print. The devil is in the details. The devils were in the details last year when the Senate moved their immigration reform bill and their details turned out to be tens of millions of people. Just a small detail, Madam Speaker, of tens of millions of people that would be legalized and granted amnesty in about a couple of decades period of time. That is the backdrop. That is the foundation of this."

U.S. Congressman Steve King (R., Iowa)
Speaking on the floor of the House of
Representatives March 12, 2007


"Known terrorists are crossing into our country and numerous politicians on both sides of the aisle chose to look the other way. Why?

In this case, it seems to boil down to votes and oil. Both political parties, in a shameless grab for Hispanic-American votes, have come to the conclusion, that if they institute real border security, then they will lose a segment of that voting bloc come 2008 and beyond.

With regard to oil...some in the Bush administration are so fearful of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela following through on his threat to turn off the oil spigot to the United States, that they are willing to ignore the influx of illegal aliens so as not to offend Mexico and threaten that supply of oil to our country.

Whatever the reasons, there can be no denying that our borders are open to terrorism. They are this way because most of our politicians have put their self-preservation ahead of national security...It is us who are responsible for these obscenely irresponsible politicians being in power"

Douglas MacKinnon
National columnist and author of "Americas" Last Days."


"Today, all law enforcement officers along our borders think that no matter what they do, they are wrong and the aliens will be protected regardless of the crime. Agents fear becoming the next Compean and Ramos, the first agents to go to prison for doing their job.

Andrew Ramire
Chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol
Congressional Testimony 3/8/07


WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

The NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) exists to give more widespread distribution to timely news stories and articles related to population, immigration, environmental and political issues that currently affect our daily life -- or have the potential to seriously impact our future. NPG President Donald Mann offers his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Research and Forum Papers. The goal of the NPG Journal is to greatly expand NPG's educational mission. As NPG celebrates its 35th Anniversary we continue to emphasize the need for Americans to speak up on population issues and keep our nation -- especially our elected leaders on the national, state and local level - focused on taking action to help resolve today's immigration crisis and work to halt, and eventually reverse America's out-of-control population growth.

We welcome your feedback to articles posted on the NPG Journal and urge you to forward us the e-mail address of friends you think would like to receive a complimentary copy of the NPG Journal on a bi-weekly basis. Contact us at npg@npg.org


ABOUT NPG:

Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization with over 30,000 members nationwide. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources, and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.