Featured Stories

Growing Resistance to Illegals in Florida
Making Choices in Arizona
Food for Energy: The Tradeoff


COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann

As the presidential contest gets bogged down with personal attacks between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and John McCain travels the nation and world to burnish his presidential credentials, there is little active discussion of what should be a key issue of this year's election: illegal immigration.

Though the initial discussion of immigration started out as promising with presidential hopefuls Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter raising the issue in early debates, it has fallen by the wayside. Hopefully, when the campaigns at all levels start to come into focus in the fall, illegal immigration will once again move to the forefront of attention.

Certainly, permitting this election to take place without the national media forcing our future leaders to make very clear their intentions when it comes to resolving the problem of illegal immigration would be a huge mistake.

Every voter who pays attention knows that our elected leaders love to ignore the "ticking time bomb" issues of our day. They hope that they will be out of office when the real crisis finally hits. A perfect case in point is the pending insolvency of America's Social Security and Medicare programs which popped back up in the headlines last week.

While many foolishly think Social Security and Medicare can be somewhat "fixed" by adjusting tax policies, no one can fathom how we resolve an immigration problem that is spiraling out of control and creating more chaos with each passing year.

Every year that goes by where we fail to take the necessary steps to secure our borders, increase interior enforcement, levy severe fines against employers for hiring illegals, create a policy to deport the countless millions of illegals already within our borders and seriously reduce the numbers of legal immigrants entering our country, only creates more horrendous problems for the future.

The recent study by the Pew Research Center that projects a U.S. population of 438 million people by 2050 - an increase of 48 percent in the next 42 years - should have our national leaders rushing to find a solution to this pending crisis, rather than running from it. One of the key findings in the Pew study notes that 82 percent of this massive growth will be the direct result of immigration.

It's not enough that our presidential candidates, along with many candidates for other elected offices, simply give lip service to the immigration issue. It's crucial that they make a solid commitment to get this major problem (and the inherent problem of population growth) under control now - not in some distant future
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Surely, it is easy for candidates to repeat over and over again that they want to tighten our nation's borders. What voter would be against that?

But as we get closer to Election Day it is going to be very important for all Americans, who care about the future quality of life in our nation and who don't want our population to skyrocket, to hold the candidates' feet to the fire. We must ask them tough, direct questions about how they will join in solving this problem and not let them shove off the issue to someone else. Most important, we must let them know that we will no longer accept meaningless rhetoric, feel-good talk, false promises - and no action. A nation of 438 million people is a terrible price to pay for political cowardice.

Hiding behind such vague terms as "comprehensive immigration reform" can mean any number of things. Indeed, it is that very ill-defined term that was used by President Bush and others in Congress during their 2007 effort to force amnesty for millions of illegals through Congress. Another term candidates like to use and voters should watch out for is "undocumented workers." Any candidates who won't face the facts and label those who broke our laws to get into our country as "illegal aliens" are not worthy of our vote.

Permitting today's immigration crisis to fester only sets the stage for future social, economic and environmental problems. It will add tens of millions of new people to our already overpopulated nation. This isn't an issue that is going to go away and it is not an issue that can be conveniently ignored. And it certainly should not be an issue where Americans are given false hope by spineless candidates who are unwilling to lead.


GROWING RESISTANCE TO ILLEGALS IN FLORIDA

News stories about frustrated Americans who are seeking new avenues besides Washington, D.C. to push for enforcement of our nation's immigration laws are quite commonplace. But when they begin to show up in a city such as Miami, with its huge population of foreign-born residents, it's a positive sign that grassroots citizen activism on this issue may well be the ticket to finally seeing results from our elected officials.

A March 31, story in the Miami Herald recounts how more and more citizens - including many elderly Americans - are joining together to get the Florida legislature to follow the lead of other states and localities and pass measures that would make it more difficult for illegal aliens to work in the Sunshine State. Among the measures they are pushing are "requiring state government contractors to participate in a federal program to verify new employees' immigration status and to make it a crime to harbor or transport an undocumented immigrant."

The article points out how Oklahoma and Arizona lawmakers have passed new restrictive laws related to illegals and such success has heartened Florida's citizen activists that they may also find a receptive ear among their legislators in Tallahassee.

The Herald article quotes WWII veteran Eros Schera whose diligent efforts to monitor "the invasion" earns him the respect of many of his fellow Floridians. He speaks for many Americans who care about this issue when he is quoted as saying, "I feel like a little guy at the bottom of the dam with my finger plugged in the dike...I know what's going to happen if I pull my finger out, only instead of a trillion tons of water it will be a trillion tons of people."

It is evident that Mr. Schera understands the message NPG works so hard to get across to the American public - today's immigration crisis only feeds our nation's future population growth. We are certainly not prepared to absorb countless millions more people in the coming decades and must act now to halt and reverse our nation's skyrocketing population growth. Click on the link above for the full story.


MAKING CHOICES IN ARIZONA

Will it soon be time for Arizona citizens to start making some tough choices?
A story in the Arizona Daily Star by Tony Davis reports the results of an unscientific online poll the newspaper conducted where "More than 3,300 people responded to more than 70 questions dealing with growth, water, traffic and other urban issues affecting Tucson and Southern Arizona."

Asked to name the "most important issue" facing Southern Arizona, the most cited were water, immigration and growth - all population related.

The story provides a good insight into just how ready citizens are to face some radical changes in the future and how split they are over many issues affecting them personally.

The story reports that "A slight majority of Southern Arizonans"trust that wastewater can be made safe to drink - although many still don't want to drink it."

On the issue of restricting outdoor water use however, the majority of respondents said "yes" but many still want to protect their plants and pools. As one citizen noted, "To arbitrarily say you can't have a pool, can't have plants and can't water plants, that's kind of un-American."

An important finding of the survey was that the majority felt "that the region doesn't have the water to support growth for 15 years." One local developer assessed the water situation by declaring, "Anybody that has got half a brain and looks at the handwriting on the wall can see we are going to have a problem...If you don't have drinking water, we can't build houses."

Here at NPG we recommend the citizens of Southern Arizona look at that handwriting today, stop the development that feeds the population explosion and perhaps save themselves from the fate of having to drink that wastewater in the near future. Click on the link above for the full story.


FOOD FOR ENERGY: THE TRADEOFF

A New York Times Editorial in early March titled Priced Out of the Market reflected on the growing crisis in today's food supplies. We reprint it here in its entirety because it contains a message that complements much of what NPG has been reporting in our Forum Papers in recent years.

Priced Out of the Market
The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries - which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels - bear much of the blame
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According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, and corn prices are up by a quarter. Global cereal stocks have fallen to their lowest level since 1982
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As usual, the brunt is falling disproportionately on the poor. The F.A.O. estimates that the cereal import bill of the neediest countries will increase by a third for the second year in a row. Prices have gone so high that the World Food Program, which aims to feed 73 million people this year, said it might have to reduce rations or the number of people it will help.

The world has faced periodic bouts when it looked as if population growth would outstrip the food supply. Each time, food production has grown to meet demand. This time it might not be so easy.

Population growth and economic progress are part of the problem. Consumption of meat and other high-quality foods - mainly in China and India - has boosted demand for grain for animal feed. Poor harvests due to bad weather in this country and elsewhere have contributed. High energy prices are adding to the pressures.

Yet the most important reason for the price shock is the rich world's subsidized appetite for biofuels. In the United States, 14 percent of the corn crop was used to produce ethanol in 2006 - a share expected to reach 30 percent by 2010. This is also cutting into production of staples like soybeans, as farmers take advantage of generous subsidies and switch crops to corn for fuel.

The benefits of this strategy are dubious. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested that - absent new technologies - the United States, China and the European Union would require between 30 percent and 70 percent of their current crop area if they were to replace 10 percent of their transport fuel consumption biofuels. And two recent studies suggested that a large-scale effort across the world to grow crops for biofuels would add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere rather than reduce it.

The human costs of this diversion of food into energy are all too evident.

As a first step, the United States and other wealthy countries that are driving this problem must ensure that the United Nations and other relief agencies get the support they need to feed the most vulnerable people. But aid is not a solution.

Congress must take a hard look at the effect of corn ethanol on food supplies in the same way the new energy bill requires it to review the environmental effects. It must move toward ending subsidies that will become even more difficult to justify as oil prices rise and the costs of producing corn ethanol decline. And it must press other wealthy countries to do the same before hunger turns to mass starvation.


POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

"NO COYOTE NEEDED" - NEW PAPER BY CIS EXPOSES LAX POLICIES

The term "coyote" if often given to someone who serves as a go-between in helping illegals enter our country. As it turns out, the biggest "coyote" around today may be the U.S. Government.

A new paper released by the Center for Immigration Studies titled No Coyote Needed: U.S. Visas Still an Easy Ticket in Developing Countries points out that lax visa policies and visa overstays "account for between one-quarter and one-half of the illegal-alien population."

The report, written by former State Department official David Seminara, takes a close look at the systemic problems in our "non-immigrant" (i.e. temporary worker or student) visa system. In exposing the problems he notes how "U.S. law places the burden of proof on the visa applicant to demonstrate that he won't remain in the United States as an illegal alien after his permission to remain has expired."

It has long been known that the current system of visa enforcement has failed miserably. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) talks a good game but it does not have the money or staff to track down visa holders who overstay their original commitment and who often blend in easily in an academic or business environment in which they are already established. After all, what are the odds of getting caught?

In his research, Seminara found that "74 percent of non-immigrant applications are granted, mostly from countries with much lower standards of living than the United States, where few residents should truly be able to qualify."

The CIS paper identifies a long list of reasons for this laxity, including:

The crushing volume of applications. Most visa-processing posts are woefully understaffed resulting in very brief interviews. Managers value speed over clarity of decision making, so many applications that deserve closer scrutiny are actually approved. DHS has not implemented meaningful exit controls or shared entry/exit data with consular offices overseas, leaving them without adequate information on visa renewal applicants. Officers evaluate how well-off visa candidates are by the standards of their home country, rather than by U.S. standards, and thus often fail to understand how a nurse from Ecuador would prefer to wash dishes at a restaurant in the U.S. rather than return to her home country when her visa was up. The CIS report can be accessed at: http://cis.org/

STUPIDITY SQUARED

Last week's news reports that the U.S. State Department has outsourced printing and production of U.S. passports to facilities outside of our country was certainly a shock to many Capitol Hill lawmakers as well as any citizen who thought we were at least making some progress in making our nation "more secure" against terrorists. And the revelation that there seems to be great potential for major security problems with this new set-up only sets alarm bells ringing.

The expose regarding the folly of this asinine policy ran in The Washington Times which had this to say about it in an editorial titled "A Passport to Danger."

"...But security, not management, is the heart of any story concerning the key identity document of the United States. Here, there were disastrous, almost incomprehensible failures. How many Americans realize that U.S. passports and their components travel a production process that spans the globe - from the Netherlands to Thailand and back to the United States - which is plagued with critical security gaps? How many realize that U.S. authorities purposely declined to manufacture the most critical U.S identity document inside the United States for technical reasons, risking infiltration, theft and crisis outside U.S. borders? How many understand the danger in the event that blank passports or high-tech passport components are stolen or transferred to terrorists or spies?"

Let's hope the geniuses at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security stop counting pennies and stop outsourcing this important work beyond our borders. It's not even been seven years since 9/11. Have we forgotten that some of the evil men who carried out that horror were here on phony passports?


GLOBAL WARMING AT WORK

Skeptics of global warming were a bit silent last week as news came from Antarctica that a chunk of ice seven times the size of Manhattan Island in New York collapsed into the sea.

The 160 square-mile chunk of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in western Antarctica had been in its current position for an estimated 1,500 years. Scientists now warn that the rest of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, could follow as it is only holding on to its adjacent territory by a narrow beam of thin ice.

Tracking of glacial ice breaks, as well as ice melting, is aided by satellites. The Washington Post noted that British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan predicted in 1993 that the Wilkins shelf would collapse in 30 years.


NEW GOVERNOR - BAD IDEAS

New Yorkers are getting to know more and more about their new governor David Patterson. Among his ideas are those definitely not welcome by any of us who believe in protecting our nation's future by reining-in immigration. According to the Wall Street Journal of March 13, Governor Patterson... "stirred up controversy last year when (as Lt. Governor) he appeared to endorse a proposal to let legal residents who were not citizens have the right to vote. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to join that crusade, asking: If voting is given to everybody, what's the point of becoming a citizen?"


BIG JUMP FORECAST IN HEALTH CARE SPENDING

Economists at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services forecast last month that health care spending will reach about $4.3 trillion in 2017, almost double what it was in 2007. Health care accounted for 16.3 percent of national GDP - the sum of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders last year.

The Washington Post quoted Kerry Weems, the agency's acting administrator as saying: "Making sure we are paying for high quality health care services, not just the number of services provided, is just one of the critical issues facing the American public and the federal government now and in the future."

NPG poses this key question: What will be the costs for health care - and its percentage of the U.S. GDP only a few decades from now when America's population soars past the 400 million mark and people live longer? Talk about critical issues facing the American people!


NPG NOTES

NPG ACTIVISTS REACH OUT TO THEIR COMMUNITIES

With Earth Day approaching later this month, NPG recently put out a call to members to take a more active role in their community celebrations by manning an NPG booth or table at a local Community Fair or Issues Forum.

We were pleased by the positive response and are looking forward to having a number of NPG booths at Earth Day fairs and other events across the country.

Those volunteering to take on this task to get our message into the hands of thousands more citizens will receive a box of NPG information including brochures, Population Impact fact sheets, NPG Forum Papers, and petitions that people can sign to support our Campaign for a National Population Policy.

If you attend an Earth Day event where one of our local activists is staffing an NPG information table please be sure to go over and say "hello." It is always heartening to find other NPG activists in your town or community who share your goals for a more livable future.

If you would like to take on the role of an NPG activist and distribute our educational materials at a local event, county fair or other gathering in your area, please do not hesitate to contact NPG by phone at 703-370-9510 or via dmiller@npg.org for additional information.


A THANKFUL TEACHER

With more and more posters for our NPG Student Poster contest arriving at our Virginia offices everyday, we are also getting positive feedback from teachers who find this a rewarding project. We were especially pleased to hear from Lauren Selig an Art Instructor in Baltimore who wrote:

"Thank you for the opportunity to have our students participate in your poster
design contest. It was treated as an extra credit assignment for my Fundamentals
in Arts class. They were very excited at the prospect of being recognized for their artwork. I think this cause is noteworthy and I commend you for your efforts.

Thanks again, the students appreciate your consideration."

Judging for the contest will proceed over the coming weeks with the winners to be announced on June 1st.


QUOTABLE

"Population growth will place more demands on the limited resources of our nation. We will require more housing, social services and medical care. This all comes with a price. The question is can the United States, or any nation, afford the costs that will result? The United States and the world, for that matter, are poised on the brink of disaster. The issue is how are we going to respond? These are not issues limited only to the United States. We are all living on planet earth."

Michael Maley
2007 NPG Scholarship Essay Contest Entry


"Mr. President, I address the Senate today to announce the organization of a new caucus: The Border Security and Enforcement First Caucus. I am very proud to be joined today by several Members in this endeavor; specificially, Senators DeMint, Sessions, Inhofe, Burr, Dole, Chambliss, Isakson, and Wicker...

...Why form this caucus? Well, clearly, this problem is a major challenge for the country. Right now, 1 in 25 U.S. residents is here illegally. It is staggering when you think about it: 1 in 25 or 4 percent. The American people have voiced their enormous concern about this en masse, large-scale problem. They have also voiced their clear concerns about some of the proposals put forward in Washington to allegedly solve this problem. One of those was shot down very clearly, very soundly last summer, and that is a solution that leads with a big, broad amnesty program.

My colleagues will be hearing a lot more from us in the coming days and months as we repeat the message delivered by the American people last summer so loudly, so clearly: We don't want amnesty. We do want enforcement first, including workplace enforcement, including interior enforcement. Hopefully, we can begin to get our hands around this very crippling, potentially debilitating problem of illegal immigration."

U.S. Senator David Vitter (R, LA)
March 5, 2008


"...I am not by nature a believer in large political conspiracies, noting that usually events can be explained by merely a conspiracy of idiots against the forces of reason. And so perhaps in this case too. The Bush administration and the leaders of the Democratic Party both want (for different reasons) no obstruction to the full flood of illegal workers (for the Republicans) and voters (for the Democrats) into the United States, thus their adamant opposition to a physical obstruction to such passage. Whether they truly believed in the efficacy of the virtual border fence or not I must leave up to the soul readers."

Tony Blankley
Nationally Syndicated 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 futur

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 grow

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 environme





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