Featured Stories

The Present -- and Future -- Arid West
The Local Face of Immigration Raids


COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann

In a recent column, political observer Michael Barone noted, "October 2007 may turn out to be the month that immigration became a key issue in presidential politics."

Let's hope he's right.

A major brouhaha resulted from last week's debate when Hillary Clinton erred while answering a question regarding New York Governor Spitzer wanting to give drivers' licenses to illegal aliens. Her waffling on the issue touched off a firestorm that has been smoldering under the surface for quite a few years. People are beginning to realize they can vent their frustrations on the immigration issue at the polls - and the presidential candidates better take notice.

Newspapers this week were rife with stories about how the illegal immigration issue is already a major factor in local elections - especially in state elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Other voters across the nation were asked to decide ballot initiatives or back candidates that favor or oppose illegal immigrants gaining more benefits and "rights." Voter activism is increasing at the local or state level because many federal officials - from President Bush on down - have failed to provide aggressive and forceful leadership to resolve the ever-growing immigration crisis.

A federal judge who stepped in last month to halt a new initiative by the Department of Homeland Security to hold employers responsible for making sure the Social Security numbers of their workers are valid. This only added to the building resentment among voters that no one is serious about finding a solution to a major national problem that seems to be spinning more and more out of control.

The dilemma for the presidential candidates is that few of them - except for Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo who has made immigration the core issue of his campaign - are perceived by voters as committed to changing the status quo. Right now, many of the Republican presidential candidates have come out strongly against amnesty for the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens already in the country, but few seem ready to pledge to really get tough in confronting the immigration crisis. On the other hand, Democratic presidential candidates are perceived as pandering to the growing clout of Hispanic voters by strongly favoring amnesty and a path to citizenship for those who entered the country illegally. The voters are getting the clear message that a new Democratic president will definitely pursue a pro-immigration agenda.

Opinion-shapers in the national media are wringing their hands in glee that a national issue besides the war in Iraq has surfaced to make the presidential elections more exciting. The voters are all too willing to accommodate them as they open their eyes to the problem of porous borders and the ever-increasing fiscal and social costs of an unresolved national immigration policy and what it means to America's future.

Polls show that a strong majority of Americans want the immigration issue resolved - and resolved soon. Hopefully, candidates at all levels will rethink their election strategy and be more responsive to the voters' demands.

In my 35 years at the helm of NPG, it is very satisfying to see the immigration issue become so dominant in our nation's elections. Tens of millions of American voters will realize the negative impacts of immigration between now and Election Day 2008, and this can only work in our favor in advancing our message and our mission.


THE PRESENT - AND FUTURE - ARID WEST

Anyone with the slightest concern about where future water will come from for many of our nation's Western states, should definitely read Jon Gertner's expansive and highly-informative article in the New York Times Magazine (10/21/07).

Gertner's on the ground reporting, where he took time to go beyond the regular talking heads and speak directly to many of the people on the front lines of this looming crisis - including realistic water managers who don't mince their words - offers a terrific insight into many of the major factors at play today in keeping the ever-scarcer water running. More important, he paints a vivid picture of what's in store for the not-so-distant future if economic and population growth continue at present levels. Listening to some experts as they explain what the future holds begs the questions, "Are we looking at a crisis or a catastrophe?"

Amazingly, some 30 million people in seven states (CO, UT, WY, NM, AZ, NV and CA) depend on the snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains that feeds the flow of the Colorado River, as do industries and agriculture in those states.

Perhaps part of the problem is that some water managers, such as Pat Mulroy, the head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority - that includes Las Vegas - refuse to acknowledge the need to halt growth and instead launch giant, costly projects to suck as much water as possible out of Lake Mead (which is currently at 49% of capacity). When Gertner asked her if limiting the growth of Las Vegas would help, Mulroy is quoted as stating, "We have an exploding human population, and we have a shrinking clean-water supply. Those are on colliding paths. This is not just a Las Vegas issue. This is a microcosm of a much larger issue."

Is time running out fast for the West's water? "We have a very short time to get people educated on what this all means" states Bradley Udall, head of the Western Water Assessment. Let's hope they are quick learners. Click on the link above for the full story


THE LOCAL FACE OF IMMIGRATION RAIDS

It has taken years to jump start the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents to make a greater effort to track down and deport illegal immigrants. Finally, public outrage about the growing immigration problem is finally making it happen.

A story in The Hartford Courant this week by Mark Spencer is reflective of dozens of stories that are appearing in local papers all over the country. First, come the stories about the "fear" spreading through the local neighborhood where the raid took place, then come the protests by immigration activists who expect our nation to welcome lawbreakers and give them a permanent home, then the immigration lawyers step forward to tie up the courts with cases that only bog down efforts to enforce our nation's laws.

The really sad part of this story is the numbers cited. We hear a lot from Washington about ICE getting more aggressive in carrying out these raids - which are long overdue - but it is terribly disheartening to learn that only 75 fugitive operations teams are currently at work in the entire nation trying to track down and deport 595,000 fugitive immigrants. It's time Congress started pouring tens of millions more dollars into this program to give ICE a chance to make substantial inroads into solving the problem. Click on the link above for the full story.

POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

STRESSING SUSTAINABILITY

Throughout the national debate on illegal immigration, NPG has been working hard to focus on the numbers of people coming into our country and radically changing our future. It's called the "Numbers Aspect" of immigration and it is central to the theme of a new NPG Forum Paper "Thoughts on Immigration into the United States" by Albert A. Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physic, University of Colorado at Boulder. NPG will soon print and distribute this paper in full but we offer a glimpse into its pages with the following:

"Growth is the centerpiece of the U.S. and world economies. The arithmetic of growth shows that modest rates of growth continuing for periods comparable to human lifetime yield numbers that are impossibly large. Sustainability requires that the society must operate so as to avoid these impossibilities. But the impossibilities are all caused by population growth. Thus, 'sustainability' and 'population growth' are in direct conflict with one another. It does not matter that politicians, who love to be on both sides of issues, frequently say that population growth and sustainability (saving the environment) are compatible. In general, they are not. Contrary to what the politicians preach, you can't have your cake and eat it too. A great contemporary tragedy is the fact that many politicians fail to recognize that the term, 'Sustainable Growth' is an oxymoron."

THE COSTS OF GOING GREEN

Business Week recently carried a story noting that while many companies quickly jumped on the "going green" bandwagon with much hoopla, they are finding it a bit too costly and quietly abandoning their projects. An article by Ben Elgin points out that some companies' "environmental overhauls" that started out as good public relations are having a negative impact on the company's bottom lines.


NPG NOTES

FEEDBACK FROM CAPITOL HILL

As NPG gathers petitions and signatures from our members, as well as citizens across America, on critical population and immigration issues under debate on Capitol Hill we consistently send the original petitions on to Senate and House Members' offices. We are always heartily encouraged to hear back from our elected officials. Below is a sampling of selected text from recent letters we received:

"I do not support amnesty for those individuals who have broken our laws and will work to deport those individuals who have become a financial and social burden on our society. I believe we must establish an Employer Verification System that is easy to use and provides timely feedback to employers. Any employer that continues to knowingly employ illegal aliens should be assessed heavy fines and penalties."

Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R, FL)

"First and foremost, providing amnesty for low wage illegal immigrants harms American workers. Illegal immigration increases the labor supply, reduces wages, and decreases the number of jobs available to Americans, particularly in the entry-level tiers of our labor markets. I also thoroughly reject the premise that there are jobs Americans won't do."

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D, PA)


POSITIVE REACTION TO NPG's 35TH ANNIVERSARY POSTER CONTEST

Recent phone calls to our NPG office, registration forms arriving in the mail, and increasing registrations via e-mail, prove that our newly announced 35th Anniversary Poster Contest is on track to being a big hit with art teachers across America. Teachers are telling us "this is a great topic" and "it's smart to get children thinking about this issue at an early age." We expect several hundred teachers to sign on to get their students to participate in the contest with each school that registers accorded the opportunity to send three pre-selected posters per grade category to us to compete. Cash prizes will be divided between both the schools and their talented students at three different educational levels. We will keep you posted on this project as it progresses. If you know of an art teacher – or home school student – who may be interested in participating in the contest, please have them contact us at npg@npg.org for additional information.


QUOTABLE

"This whole situation has been like Katrina in slow motion...It's the same confluence of factors. There's Mother Nature, the Army Corps of Engineers and the utter failure to plan for the growth of metro Atlanta."

David Goldberg, a "smart growth" advocate and Atlanta-based writer on urban affairs


"With the passage of the Dream Act, the message that will resonate across Latin America will simply be: Get your kids across the Rio Grande, get them into free public school and within a few years they will be on their way to a Social Security account...The message is clear: just get here"

Mark Cromer
Californians for Population Stabilization ,commenting before the Dream Act was defeated


"While growing corn for ethanol production in Iowa can be done without irrigation, doing so in the dryer Plains states cannot. Using modern methods, it takes about 2,000 gallons of water to grow a bushel of corn. The Plains states were already depleting their water tables unsustainably before America's recent ethanol trend took root, meaning they have little room for further expansion (in fact, they have no real capacity for expansion)".

Michael O'Hanlon - Brookings Institute
Steve Fales - Biorenewables Program, Iowa State University


"Last I checked, it was the immigrant's responsibility to learn the language of the new country, not the country's responsibility to learn the language of the immigrant.

The former made us the strong, multiethnic nation we have become. The latter has put us squarely on the road to becoming what Theodore Roosevelt once called 'a tangle of squabbling nationalities.'"

Mauro E. Mujica
Chairman, U.S. English


"In the end, the world of the Great Depression, molded by fear, uncertainty, determination, and a wondrous bravery, gave us the world of our own present hope - and if we shape our world half as well as did the men and women of the 1930's, we will have gone a long way toward honoring our own obligation to the future."

T.H. Watkins
"The Great Depression: America in the 1930's "


"You are not hated. However, you are not welcome; don't confuse the two...You chose to steal into this country like thieves in the night. By doing so, you showed us that you have no respect for our laws. You have no respect for our country, and you have no respect for its citizens."

Earl Cronin
Prince William County, VA testifying at county hearings to crack down on illegals.


"At lot of the problem here is that we've become part of the fuel...Nobody wants to talk about it, but in the last 50 years the population of Southern California has increased by a factor of six, especially in the areas they're having fires. It's the convergence of Mother Nature and human nature."

Bill Patzert
Climatologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California


"...The lack of seriousness our politicians and much of our populace display toward the grave issues we face as a nation has grown to such an extent that it may become a threat to this country's very survival in the coming years."

John Hawkins
National Columnist


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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.

We realize not all news stories covering population issues will reflect NPG policies and goals. One of our main purposes in creating the NPG Journal is to expose these items to a wider audience, and to draw attention to the fact that so many articles speak to immigration and population issues but often fail to address the central cause of many problems - TOO MANY PEOPLE.

Ultimately, NPG would like to see writers at all levels make the obvious (to us, at least) connection between environmental and resource problems and the growing umber of people in both the United States and the world. Unfortunately, most do not. To that end, we comment as necessary to help our readers see those links in hopes they will continue to speak out on what we deem to be the most pressing issue of our time - population size and growth.

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 www.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.





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