Immigration Conference Long Overdue

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, October 5, Progressives for Immigration Reform held its 1st National Conference on Immigration, Conservation and the Environment at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.  The conference featured eight panelists during the daylong event whose backgrounds ranged from academia to nonprofit advocacy.  Progressives for Immigration Reform is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that aims to inform the public of how increased immigration levels adversely impact the U.S. environment, labor market and economy. Leah Durant, the Executive Director of Progressives for Immigration Reform, moderated the event.  Ms. Durant, a former Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, has spent much of her career working on immigration law and policy.  

The keynote speaker of the daylong event was Paul Ehrlich, famed biologist and author of The Population Bomb.  Other speakers included well known immigration policy experts such as Roy Beck of NumbersUSA and Philip Cafaro, professor at Colorado State University and author of the upcoming book Bleeding Hearts and Empty Promises: A Liberal Rethinks American Immigration. Additional panelists included demographer Steven Camarota of The Center for Immigration Studies, Chris Martenson, a scientist and developer of The Crash Course, William Ryerson, founder and president of the Population Media Center and Don Weeden, director of the Weeden Foundation.  Ed Barry of the Population Institute also provided a fascinating presentation about how exponential population growth impacts the environment.

Each panelist gave brief overviews on topics such as, "The Tragedy of the Commons: Why Population Reduction Has Become Taboo (Beck)" and "Environmental Arguments for Stabilizing U.S. Population (Cafaro)."  Many of the talks correlated the population explosion in the U.S. and around to the world to a number of devastating ecological consequences such as deforestation, exploited fisheries and species extinction. The day's panel made clear that America is experiencing population growth at unprecedented levels, most of which is due to the generosity of U.S. immigration policies.  The conference highlighted that as a result of political correctness, population control remains a taboo subject.  For that reason, conferences such as the one Progressives for Immigration Reform hosted are needed to foster dialogue within the policy community and compel global leaders to devise solutions to an impending crisis.  A number of the speakers who presented at the conference maintain informative websites that outline key points made during the event.  

According to Leah Durant, "Many Americans understand the seriousness of U.S. immigration policy on burgeoning population and environmental degradation."  Conferences like the one sponsored by Progressives for Immigration Reform help Americans to understand how exponential growth has serious ramifications for U.S. sustainability.  

SOURCE Progressives for Immigration Reform