- In this three part series, you may enjoy Maria Fotopoulos,
Senior Writing Fellow at www.capsweb.org as she examines amnesty
for 20 million illegal aliens now residing within the United States. She
addresses the key word 'sustainability' in "No home for amnesty in
a sustainable America."
- "At the root of any modern nation-state lies the
belief that because a given population shares, or can be made to share,
certain identifiable characteristics-religion, language, shared history,
and so on-it merits an independent existence," wrote historian James
- "Some 500 years of history, tracing back to the
Protestant Reformation, anchor the development of the concept of nation-state,
which became the preeminent political organizing structure worldwide by
the 19th century," said Fotopoulos. "Sovereignty and recognizable
borders are among the most prominent characteristics of the nation-state.
For the United States, its borders have evolved through the last 200 years
and the push of Manifest Destiny, ultimately taking our current 50-state
- "Borders are more than just lines on maps. With
recognizable borders comes a system to maintain their integrity. In the
nation's collective memory, Ellis Island, site of passage for 12 million
legal immigrants to the U.S. from the late 1890s through the early 1950s,
is the symbol of a system that once ensured we knew who was coming into
- "In recent times, the focal point of a legal gateway
for U.S. entry has eroded both in reality and in public consciousness.
Although people have entered the country illegally since immigration laws
were first passed, the numbers in recent years have soared. Millions are
in this country illegally because they sneaked across borders or overstayed
- "The influx of humanity coming to the country both
legally and illegally has been addressed in various ways through the years.
Under presidents Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower there were mass deportations
of illegal aliens, including large numbers from Mexico who worked throughout
the southwestern states in agriculture. By the end of the Eisenhower years,
reports indicated that illegal immigration dropped by 95 percent.
- "Then in 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and
Nationality Act (the Hart-Celler Immigration Bill). Essentially, it replaced
immigration law from the 1920s and recast the future of immigration for
the country. With staunch support from a young Senator Ted Kennedy, the
new law placed no limit on the number of family members that could come
to the country by way of a "family reunification" clause for
legal immigrants. The law also shifted the focus from Western European
immigrants and opened up immigration to non-European nations, notably Asian
and Latin American countries. Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970,
with another doubling between 1970 and 1990.
- "Twenty years later, immigration-this time illegal-was
again a topic. Again, with a big push from Senator Kennedy, the role of
immigration in shaping the country was to change, this time with the passage
of the Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, an amnesty for
- "Since IRCA, Congress has enacted an additional
six amnesties, providing some 5.7 million people with the gift of U.S.
- 1. Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986
- Blanket amnesty for some 2.7 million illegal aliens.
- 2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994
- Temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens.
- 3. Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997
- Extension of the rolling amnesty created in 1994.
- Note: The numbers for section 245(i) are not broken
out for 1994 and 1997.
- 4. Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief
Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997
- Amnesty for close to 1 million illegal aliens from Central
- 5. Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA),
- Amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti.
- 6. Late Amnesty, 2000
- Amnesty for some illegal aliens who claim they should
have received amnesty under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000
- 7. LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000
- Reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty,
an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens.
- "Ultimately, these legislative acts awarded amnesty
to a much larger populace than the original estimates. Rather than cover
some one million illegal aliens, IRCA, together with the Late Amnesty of
2000, gave the opportunity for naturalization to more than 3 million people
who were illegally in the U.S."
- MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS NOW IN THE U.S.
- "The number of people living in the country illegally
now is at an epic level, between 10 and 30 million according to most government
and academic estimates, although some studies place the figure much higher.
It is difficult to overstate the enormity of the problem, even at the conservative,
consensus figure," said Fotopoulos. "For some perspective on
size, more than 100 nations of the world have a population less than 12
million. Many politicians, thinking of short-term fixes, rather than the
best interests of American citizens, have focused on amnesty, failing to
note the historical record demonstrating that amnesties simply lead to
more amnesties and to higher rates of illegal immigration.
- "Traditionally, America has been one of the few
countries that was a magnet for large-scale immigration. With increased
global population pressure and greater mobility, the United States-the
third most populous country in the world-is no longer alone in wrestling
with immigration issues.
- "Britain's new austerity plan includes recognition
that immigration is out of control, and the country will cap the number
of immigrants from outside the EU. In Northern Ireland, after a recent
crackdown on illegal immigrants, a representative of the border agency
said, "We will not tolerate illegal working which threatens to damage
our communities, and will act on intelligence to target those businesses
which ignore the rules and remove those with no right to be in the UK."
- "In Australia, environmentalists, concerned with
the deleterious impacts of population growth on the environment, are leading
an effort to reduce immigration levels. The population of Australia, approximately
the same size as our contiguous states, is 22 million compared to the U.S.
population of 310 million.
- "A CNN report noted severe penalties, including
corporal punishment, for illegal immigration in Malaysia and Singapore.
Italy criminalized illegal immigration last year in a law that "allows
unarmed civilians to form patrol groups and help police fight crime on
the street," CNN observed.
- "In comparison, the law passed this year in Arizona
to try to combat the state's epidemic of illegal immigration-an estimated
460,000 illegal aliens are calling Arizona home-seems mild. It allows law
officers, in the course of enforcing other laws, to check a person's immigration
status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is in the U.S.
illegally. The law mirrors federal law that has been in force for decades."
- For more information please contact: www.capsweb.org
- Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)
- 1129 State Street, 3-D
- Santa Barbara, CA 93101
- Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents
from the Arctic to the South Pole as well as six times across
the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from
the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming
Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it" to civic
clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring
about sensible world population balance atwww.frostywooldridge.com He
is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million
Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715