Deputy Director's Corner

• Tracy Henke
• October 20, 2016
• NPG
• 0 Comments

Recently, one of the key legislative staffers for Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL, 5^th) sent me a YouTube link.  It was video of Congressman Brooks giving a speech on the U.S. House of Representatives floor – a speech titled “Brooks Urges Reevaluation of Mass Immigration Policies.” 

In just 4 minutes 56 seconds, Brooks covers many of the points on immigration that NPG has long held:  immigration will soon become the primary driver of our nation’s population growth, and we must change our current policies of mass immigration levels if we are ever to preserve a livable future.  (For more information on how immigration drives U.S. population growth, click here see our recent NPG Forum paper.)

I was, of course, thrilled to see a U.S. Congressman bringing this critical issue to the House floor – giving it even 5 minutes of attention in front of lawmakers.  However, I was even happier that the Congressman’s staff knew to reach out to us.  To me, this shows that all our efforts – the petitions, the advertisements, the press releases, the educational campaigns, the Forum publications… are paying off!

The Congressman and his staff clearly share NPG’s position in the fight for responsible U.S. population and immigration policies.

As if to punctuate things, this much-needed speech on Capitol Hill came just after the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a new series of county maps outlining the growth of the adult immigrant population from 1990-2014.  According to CIS, the series of maps “provides detailed information on the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) at the county level in 1990, 2000, and 2014.” 

Not surprisingly, CIS found: 

• In 1990, only 44 counties had an immigrant population of 20% or more.  By 2014, that number had jumped to 152 counties.
• In 2014, nearly 1 in 3 Americans lived in a county where immigrants made up 20% or more of the adult population.
• More than 232 counties have had their immigrant share quadruple since 1990.

NPG has long held that such mass immigration levels are a dangerous de facto population policy.  In fact, we are presently updating our NPG Forum paper Foreign-Born Population Keeps Rising: Immigration Trumps Critical Need for U.S. Population Reduction to highlight this trend. 

Sadly, it was just days after these important reports went public that another article came out – this one by YaleGlobal Online.  Author Joseph Chamie, former director of the UN Population Division, starts his piece off with a shock by titling it: “Prepare for the 21st Century Exodus of Migrants.”  In his highly-detailed article, Chamie warns that current migration figures – and the resulting population growth models – are dangerously underestimating future migration. 

Chamie also explains that most estimates do not factor in:  desire to immigrate, plans to migrate in the next year, and having “taken steps necessary for migration.”  He warns:  “If those taking steps necessary to migrate were to immigrate to desired destinations, the result would expand UN-projected annual numbers for major migrant-receiving Western countries by more than tenfold.”