New Census Data Reveal Immigration is Fueling Runaway U.S. Population Growth

Mass Immigration is Unsustainable, Warns FAIR

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today's release of  2010 Census data reveal that the U.S. population grew by more than 27 million during the last decade – representing a nearly ten percent increase in our population in just ten years. The single largest factor in this enormous, and unwelcome, increase was excessive legal and illegal immigration.

Here is how the math works:

• During the past decade, about 13 million new immigrants arrived in the United States legally and illegally. Accounting for emigration and deaths, the net foreign-born population increased by some 8 million people.
• An additional 10 million births to foreign-born women were recorded during the 2000 decade.
• Net immigration plus births to immigrants swelled the U.S. population by some 18 million people during the previous decade, accounting for about two-thirds of the population growth during that period.
• The population surge of the 2000s was the third largest in U.S. history, exceeded only by the 1950s and 1990s.

The new data also confirm warnings by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) that continued mass immigration places this country on an unsustainable population growth trajectory. Unless significant reductions in overall immigration to the United States are enacted, soaring U.S. population growth will further strain our natural resources and steadily diminish quality of life for all Americans.

"The 2010 Census data provide further evidence that U.S. immigration policies are damaging our nation and jeopardizing our future," noted Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "It is increasingly clear that our immigration policies are divorced from the social, economic and environmental realities that face our nation. While the vast majority of Americans want to see our population stabilized, the federal government maintains immigration policies that, conservatively estimated, will account for the lion's share of an additional 130 million Americans by mid-century."

Since its inception in 1979, FAIR has consistently advocated for immigration policies that help stabilize the population. "It is hard to conceive of any benefits resulting from continued population growth of the size we experienced over the past ten years," said Stein. "Yet, the rapid and damaging population increases this nation has experienced over the past three decades have been largely a result of our refusal to rein-in runaway immigration.

"If we are serious about addressing issues like resource depletion, urban sprawl, and environmental degradation, we had better get serious about addressing our nation's failed immigration policies. The new Census data remind us, yet again, that we owe it to future generations of Americans to make rational decisions to reduce immigration to the United States," Stein concluded.

About FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group.  With over 250,000 members nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests.  FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.  

SOURCE FAIR