|
Gaylord Nelson, former Senator (D-WI),
co-founder of Earth Day (deceased)
"As far as I know, most organizations are avoiding population
issues because they're politically frightened by the charge that
comes from some proponents of immigration that if you oppose
the immigration policy we have now, you're a racist..
-- Newhouse News Service, May 21, 2001
George Borjas, economist
"The evidence suggests that American would be better off
if immigrants were more skilled. And it can be plausibly argued
that a smaller number of immigrants would be beneficial for the
country. But major changes in immigration policy occur only rarely.
-- " Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American
Economy," from The Milken Institute
Christopher Jencks, Malcolm Wiener Professor
of Social Policy at Harvard University
"America's current immigration policy is a vast social experiment...
It involves two gambles. First, we are betting that rapid population
growth will have no significant adverse effect on the quality
of our descendants' lives.
-- "Who Should Get In?" New York Review of Books,
December 20, 2001
Howard Phillips, Constitution Party Presidential
Candidate
"Each year some 972,000 legal immigrants and hundreds of
thousands of illegal aliens enter the United States. These immigrants
" including illegal aliens " have been made eligible
for various kinds of public assistance, including housing, education,
Social Security, and legal services.
-- from the Constitution Party Platform 2000
Tim Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-CO),
President Clinton's Population and Consumption Task Force
'As a matter of public debate, immigration is a sensitive and
explosive issue, and both legal and illegal immigration must
be addressed with great sensitivity and care in order to advance
the debate.
-- from the Executive Summary
Robert Stump, former U.S. Representative
(R-AZ) (deceased)
"I don't think Americans want to live in a country with
130 million more people than we already have; I know my constituents
don't."
-- Congressman Stump has been a sponsor of several immigration
moratorium acts
Georgie Ann Geyer, syndicated columnist
"If you look at America's scientific figures, there is no
question what is at stake. High immigration and birth rates are
driving the United States to record high population levels.
-- Sierra Club's Immigration Debate Presages Environmental
Struggles
Robert Samuelson, columnist
"We may face a paradox. To benefit from immigration, we
may need a little less of it. People need time to adjust.
-- "Can American Assimilate?," Newsweek, April,
2001
Robert Byrd, U.S. Senator (D-WV)
"...the United States today is in the midst of another immigration
wave--the largest since the early 1900s. According to the latest
numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, immigrants now comprise
about 10 percent of the total U.S. population.
-- speech on the floor of the Senate, July 23, 2001
George F. Kennan, diplomat and statesman
"Actually, the inability of any society to resist immigration,
the inability to find other solutions to the problem of employment
at the lower, more physical, and menial levels of the economic
process, is a serious weakness, and possibly even a fatal one,
in any national society.
-- Around the Cragged Hill, 1993
Edward Abbey, author
[T]he subject of illegal aliens is a touchy one ... They come
to stay and they stay to multiply. What of it? say the documented
liberals.
-- from One Life at a Time, Please (1988)
Richard Lamm, former governor (D-CO)
"America can and will stabilize its population by 2050 by
our natural birth rate. Yet under current immigration rates,
the U.S. is likely to double its population. It is up to us to
choose. If we choose to continue to import to the U.S.
-- The Denver Post, July 8, 2001
|
Froma Harrop, syndicated columnist
"...stabilizing the population will require a cut in the
immigration numbers. Immigration is a contentious issue. The
statistics, however, cannot be ignored. America's 'resident population'
has been growing very slowly for the past 20 years.
Barbara Jordan, former U.S. Representative,
U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (deceased)
"As a nation with a long history of immigration
and commitment to the rule of law, this country must set limits
on who can enter and then credibly enforce our immigration law.
-- from testimony by Barbara Jordan before a joint House and
Senate committee hearing June 28, 1995
John F. Kennedy, U.S. President (deceased)
We no longer need settlers for virgin lands, and our economy
is expanding more slowly than in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
... [My proposals] will have little effect on the number of immigrants
admitted. ...
-- from A Nation of Immigrants (1958), written at a time when
immigration was running below 300,000 per year (about one-third
of today's level). After Kennedy was assassinated, Congress passed
the 1965 Immigration Act as a memorial to the slain president.
But the law violated Kennedy's intentions by opening the gates
to radically increased levels of immigration, whereas Kennedy
had wanted only to make the limited immigration visas available
more widely to all nationalities.
Charley Reese, columnist
"Nevertheless, if we do not stabilize growth, our country
eventually will be ruined by sheer numbers. It should give folks
a clue that most of the immigrants, legal or illegal, are trying
to get away from countries that are overpopulated.
Tony Beilenson, former U.S Representative
(D-CA)
"Middle-range Census Bureau projections show our population
rising to nearly 400 million by the year 2050, an increase the
equivalent of adding 40 cities the size of Los Angeles.
--supporting the Jordan Commission recommendations on the
floor of Congress, 1996
Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of
Labor
"Opening America's borders and otherwise legalizing 'guest
workers' will reduce the demand for Americans to fill those jobs.
(The administration's claim that the program will be limited
to jobs that 'no American worker is available and willing to
take' is ludicrous on its face.
-- "It's Jobs, Stupid," by Robert Reich as printed
in the San Jose Mercury News, January, 2004
James Goldsborough, journalist
"If the United States owes its very identity
to immigration, it is time to recognize the hazards of unreasonable
and uncontrolled immigration.
-- "Out-of-Control Immigration," Foreign Affairs,
Sept./Oct. 2000
Samuel Gompers, union leader (deceased)
"America must not be overwhelmed. "Every effort to
enact immigration legislation must expect to meet a number of
hostile forces and, in particular, two hostile forces of considerable
strength.
-- From a letter to Congress dated March 19, 1924
Tom Tancredo, U.S. Representative (R-CO)
"I encourage us all to think about the need to once again
gain control of our own borders, reduce the number to a level
that is the more traditional level of 175,000 to 200,000 a year
legally coming into this country and then try our best to deal
with the illegals who are coming at a rate of 1 or 2 million...
-- speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives
during Special Orders, May 24, 2001
David Brower, former executive director, Sierra Club
"Overpopulation is a very serious problem, and overimmigration
is a big part of it. We must address both. We can't ignore either."
John Bryant, former U.S. Representative
(D-TX)
"Members of the House, I was a cosponsor of this legislation
(H.R.2202). I stood in a press conference alongside the gentleman
from Texas [Mr. Smith] and said we have got to do something to
reduce legal immigration and to reduce illegal immigration.
-- House of Representatives, September 25, 1996
|