"The term "immigrants" (also known as the foreign born) refers to people residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. This population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), certain legal nonimmigrants (e.g., persons on student or work visas), those admitted under refugee or asylee status, and persons illegally residing in the United States."
My estimate of a million illegals per year is based on the news report that a record number of apprehensions (about 160,000 in one month) were made, I believe it was last March. I haven't heard of another record breaking month since then, so I assume that the current rate is somewhat lower. I don't know what that rate is, but I would be surprised if it was much less than 100,000. At 100,000 per month, that would total 1.2 million per year, so my estimate of a million per year might be conservative. Any way you look at it, it's a lot of illegals, and that's only counting the ones who were apprehended.
According to the chart, the immigrant population has never been much more than 15%. It trended downward from about 1910 and bottomed out in 1970 at 5%. It has increased from there, and now is back up to about 15%. That doesn't sound alarming until you realize that the total number of immigrants has tripled since 1970, so three times the number of immigrants represents three times the percentage. Math is my weak subject, but I think that means the native born population has remained stable, while the immigrant population has tripled, which would be consistent with what both Uncle Ken and I have asserted.
Where Uncle Ken and I differ is in our opinions about whether or not a growing U.S. population is desirable. Uncle Ken, the city mouse, believes the more the merrier, while I, the country mouse, just vant to be left alone. I am not hoping for Social Security to fail, but I would rather have that happen than to see the pristine swamps of Beaglesonia over run by the hungry hordes.
People have been fighting over real estate since forever. Non human animals and even plants do it too, so it must be a natural thing. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to find a better way to live. One theory is that, if we can bring our population growth under control, we won't need to periodically expand our range at other people's expense. For that to work, however, everybody has to do it. If we do it and the others don't, it will just insure that we will be the next victims trodden underfoot and cast upon the ash heap of history.
No comments:
Post a Comment