U.S. Carrying Capacity Checkup Warning: U.S. in overshoot mode!

November, 2004

POPULATION / IMMIGRATION

1. The USA's population grows by 3.3 million annually, making it the fastest growing of all the industrialized nations in the world. - U.S. Census Bureau Data, May 2002

2. The U.S. population is now 294 million. If the present growth rate of 1.1% per year (about a 60 year doubling time) continues, the U.S. population will exceed 527 million by 2050 and one billion by 2100. - Population-Environment Balance, 2004 study

3. Of the total 527 million-person increase by 2050, 150 million will be immigrants or their children if current trends continue. - Population-Environment Balance, 2004 study

4. 86.7% of the United States population growth per year (and nearly 100% in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois) results from mass immigration and children born to immigrants. - Camarota, Steven A., Immigrants in the United States - 2002: A Snapshot of America's Foreign-Born Population, Center For Immigration Studies, Table 2, pg 3. November 2002

5. Well over one million legal immigrants a year (about 1.5 million in 2001) and over 500,000 illegal immigrants settle in the United States annually. - U.S. Census Bureau data

However, recent articles and estimates of the total illegal alien population in the United States indicate that the annual number arriving and intending to stay is much higher.

COST TO TAXPAYERS

6. In a 1997study Dr. Don Huddle, professor of economy, Emeritus, Rice University made a ten year projection that mass immigration would cost a net (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $93 billion per year, during the decade 1997-2006.

7. Among the largest federal costs from illegal immigration are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion). - Camarota, Steven A. The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget, Center For Immigration Studies, August 2004

8. About 80% of immigrants are less educated than the average American. They are, on average, paid less than the typical American, so immigrant-headed families draw on social services at a greater rate. Statistically, immigrants use more welfare and food stamps than the average for native-born Americans despite 1996 reform legislation that imposed an eligibility requirement of a ten-year residency on non-citizens. - Carrying Capacity Network The Economic Costs of Mass Immigration, pg. 4, 02 Act 5, 2002

9. The proportion of "most recent immigrants" on welfare rolls has increased since 1990, while the number of native households on welfare have decreased at the same time. In 1998, 10% of immigrant households received cash benefits from welfare, compared to 7% of native households nationally. - U.S. Census Bureau Data, July 2004

10. The Social Security system has a positive cash flow. Nevertheless, Social Security is a re-distributive system, so the presence of a low-wage population -- as the immigrant population largely is -- is pushing it toward bankruptcy faster than would otherwise happen. The present value calculation that takes into account future liabilities incurred in immigrant accounts reveals a net deficit of $8.5 billion dollars in 1996. Each year of increased immigration makes the present value liability larger. (Huddle 1997)

LOSSES TO WORKING AMERICANS/JOBS

11. According to a 2004 study by Harvard Professor George Borjas, American workers lose $190 billion annually in wage depression due to mass immigration; with an average reduction of $1,700 annually for native-born workers.

12. All of the decline in net employment over 2000-2002 period was borne by native-born workers. Native born men face the greatest job competition, according to 2003 research done by Dr. Andrew Sum and associates at the Center for Labor Studies at Northeastern University.

13. Sum and his colleagues also conclude that immigrants have taken virtually 100% of the new jobs created in recent years. This conclusion follows from the fact that more immigrants and fewer native-born Americans were employed in 2002 than two years earlier.

ECONOMY

14. Latin American immigrants send $30 billion a year to Latin America in remittances; including about $14 billion per year to Mexico alone; a drain on the U.S. economy that is projected to total over $300 billion over the next ten years. A large part of the wages paid to immigrants never circulates through the U.S. economy. Thus, these wages do not "grow" the domestic market.- Inter-American Development Bank Web site, Sending Money Home: Remittances to Latin America from the US, 2004: https://www.iadb.org/mif/v2/files/map2004survey.pdf

15. Without mass immigration, per capita GDP would hold steady or rise, even with relatively low economic growth. Instead of running to create 2 million jobs a year during the 1980s and 1990s, the economy could have made do with far slower job growth. Fewer new jobs would have made more capital investment available for each. Each job would have been more productive, potentially providing higher wages. We could have had fewer, but better quality jobs-instead of the many low-paid service jobs that the country actually got. - Carrying Capacity Network The Economic Costs of Mass Immigration, 02 Act 5, 2002

16. More than 50,000 invader species have been introduced into the U.S. These organisms are causing more than $137 billion in economic damages per year. The number of species being introduced is increasing rapidly because we have more people traveling and more goods being shipped into the U.S. -Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University

NATURAL RESOURCES / ENVIRONMENT

LAND/FOOD

17. One acre of natural habitat and/or farmland is converted into built-up space or highways for each person added to the U.S. population. - Dr. Pimentel, Cornell University

18. Currently, the U.S. earns $40 billion per year as the largest food exporter in the world. If present trends in U.S. population growth, domestic food consumption, energy supplies, and topsoil loss continue, the U.S. Food exports (including the income from them) are projected to virtually cease by 2040. - Dr. Pimentel, Cornell University

19. If current growth trends continue, only 0.6 acres of arable land per person will be available in the U.S. in 2050, whereas more than 1.2 acres per person are needed to provide a diverse diet (currently 1.6 acres of arable land are available). - Population-Environment Balance U.S. Population Growth and Food, Land, Energy, Water, and the U.S. Economy

20. Nearly 700 species of plants and animals are endangered or threatened by habitat loss caused by population growth. About 9000 species are at risk of extinction, and 500 species – that we know of – have already vanished forever. - Population-Environment Balance U.S. Population Growth: and Food, Land, Energy, Water, and the U.S. Economy

ENERGY

21. The United States consumes 20 to 30 times more fossil fuel energy per capita than people in developing nations. Without such high fossil fuel consumption rates, the standard of living would decline, a loss that would differentially affect poorer sectors of the society. -"Eating Fossil Fuels," Dale Allen Pfeiffer

22. 93% of the increase in the United States' use of energy in the 20-year period between 1970 and 1990 can be traced to population growth - Professor John Holdren, energy specialist, Harvard University

23. 400 gallons of oil equivalents are expended annually to feed each American. -"Eating Fossil Fuels," Dale Allen Pfeiffer

24. About 60% of the oil used in the United States is imported, at a cost of $75 billion per year at last year's price of oil. U.S. oil and gas reserves are being depleted, leading to declining oil and gas production despite more exploration. From having been self-sufficient, the United States now imports 12 million of the 20 million barrels it uses daily. - Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University

25. Population growth increases demand, so it exacerbates dependence on foreign sources. If current mass immigration and consumption trends continue, all domestic oil supplies will be effectively depleted by approximately 2020, forcing the USA to import almost 100% of its oil. -"Eating Fossil Fuels," Dale Allen Pfeiffer

26. Essential natural resources such as potable water and oil are absolutely limited in supply, and substitutes are not easily and/or efficiently found. For such resources, population growth reduces per capita shares. More users, each with a smaller share, means more poverty and an inevitably higher cost for the resources. - Carrying Capacity Network The Economic Costs of Mass Immigration, pg. 6, 02 Act 5, 2002

WATER

27. Much of the United States Western grain belt is irrigated by the Ogallala aquifer which is annually depleted at a rate 30-60% in excess of recharge rates. -"Eating Fossil Fuels," Dale Allen Pfeiffer

28. This depletion of the Ogallala aquifer has so far caused 2.46 million acres of farmland to be taken out of cultivation. - Meadows, Donella and Randers, Jorgen and Meadows, Dennis, Limits to Growth: The 30 year update. Synopsis, pg. 11

29. Even if water management is substantially improved, by the year 2070 the 580 million residents of the U.S.A. will only have 770 gallons/day/per capita, considered to be too little if we are to maintain current irrigated crop and livestock production in the U.S. -Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University

DISEASE

30. Prevalence of TB in countries from which immigrants come to the United States is 10 to 30 times greater than in the U.S. Health officials estimate -- three source nations -- Mexico, the Phillipines and Viet Nam -- account for two-thirds of the TB cases brought into our country. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports TB incidence among the foreign-born had increased from 22% of the national total in 1986 to 46% in 2000. The newer strains of TB are antibiotic resistant.

31. Both public health measures and the treatment for medically indigent Americans or immigrants are costs ultimately borne by every taxpayer. Consider New York City, which allowed tuberculosis (TB) surveillance and care budgets to decline when disease threat was minimal. In 1989, before TB was recognized as a resurgent problem, the New York City budget from all expenditures on TB was $2 million. The mass-immigration driven resurgence in TB rates drove the 1999 TB budget up to $50 million, with annual increases to come. - Carrying Capacity Network The Economic Costs of Mass Immigration, pg. 5, 02 Act 5, 2002

32. The CDC recently declared that the only cases of measles (sometimes deadly) in the United States since 1998 are a result of immigration.

NATIONAL SECURITY

33. "The massive flow of people across U.S. Borders makes exclusion of all foreign terrorists impossible." The National Commission on Terrorism, June 2000

34. One of the 1993 World Trade Center terrorists, Mahmud Abouhalima, was given permanent resident status under the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens. - Center for Immigration Studies

35. Border Patrol Sources consistently place the number of non-Mexicans (OTMs) apprehensions at 5% to 10% of total apprehensions, which would bring the 2003 tally between 45,000 and 90,000 OTMs apprehended nationwide. However, most independent observers and Border Patrol officials believe that two to three times as many people make it past the Border Patrol as are apprehended. Under the OTM category is a subgroup called "Special Interest Aliens," which are individuals from countries on the State Department's potential terrorist list. Sources also place their numbers for 2003 at more than 6,000. - August 4th, 2004 Congressman Tom Tancredo press release, Twelve Congressmen Ask DHS for Inquiry into Non-Mexicans Who Enter the U.S. Illegally: "Lack of border protection too great a terror threat to ignore."