The New Case Against Immigration [Hardcover]

"The New Case Against Immigration" cuts through distortions and P.C. positions on the topic with convincing and shocking data.

The 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants, along with the 17 million Americans of Mexican origin and another 16 million Cubans and other Hispanics total more than those of the next ten most common immigrant nations. Hispanics total about 50% of our total immigrants, posing major implications for assimilation. This is further acerbated by cheaper calls, easier access to Mexico, support from American businesses, and considerable legal support from the Mexican government and elites within the U.S.

Massive Mexican immigration into the U.S. is a relatively new problem - in 1970 less than 800,000 Mexicans were in the U.S. Once in the U.S., Mexican women's fertility rises from 2.4 (in Mexico) to 3.5 in the U.S. - considerably greater than native-born American women. (2002 data)

Mexican immigrants have the lowest citizenship rate - 19%, vs. 42% for Canadians, 54% for Chinese. They are also the least-educated major immigration group - 62% without a high-school education, while their children and grandchildren have a dropout rate of 25%. About 43% of illegal Mexican households use at least one major welfare program, and 50% are eligible for EITC. Even third generation Mexican-Americans use welfare at a level 3X that of American natives.

Over half of Mexicans believe the American S.W. belongs to them. Their consulates in the U.S. lobby for acceptance of matricula cards (opposed by the FBI as inadequate) for ID, in-state tuition, drivers licenses, sanctuary city status, etc.

Studies have found Mexican immigrants somewhat less likely to be criminals than native-born Americans, but their children are much more likely to be. Second-generation males aged 18-39 from El Salvador and Guatemala are incarcerated nearly 6X as often as their parents, those from Mexico 8X, and Vietnamese 12X.

Mass immigration overwhelms our capacity to screen out enemies or locate and remove them. A sampling found a high volume of fraud (40-80%) in H-1B, P-3 (artists and entertainers), L-1 (intra-company transfers) applications. Meanwhile, U.S. agencies held competitions in 2006 for the fastest processing times - approvals are the easiest.

Studies find illegal immigrants pulling down wages, especially at the bottom - about 40% in California between 1969-1997, and undermine the incentives to automate production. (Japan has decided to automate rather than import foreign workers.)

The U.S. spent about $4.5 billion subsidizing the education of foreign college students in 2005-06. Immigrants created about 86% of the growth in uninsured in 1998-2003; 47% of immigrant families were either uninsured or on Medicaid. The number of E.D.s in the U.S. fell 9% from 1993-2003, while visits increased 26%.

A 2004 Heritage Fund study found the average lifetime cost of low-skilled immigrant households was about $1.2 million to taxpayers - about the net benefit to taxpayers of a college-educated family.

Bottom Line: "The New Case Against Immigration" demands a stronger stand against both legal and illegal immigration. Its recommended direction is to continue the effort to prevent their taking American jobs, getting drivers licenses and benefits.

This book should be required reading by alll policy makers.
The author sets aside political correctness and writes facts and common sense. It is a well written book. I believe most of the people in the United States understand what impact immigration is having on our country and are puzzled why the policy makers think they are above it.
I ended up buying this book from Amazon. I had hoped our local library would get it. The said they wouldn't, since it had received bad reviews. Do I sense a selective form of censorship on the part of the local library?

Mark Krikorian has written a noble volume on current immigration problems, one refreshingly free of either mean-spiritedness or political partisanship. His thesis is that a common American civic culture is worth preserving - his opponents, therefore, include many current, confidence-lacking American citizens, chief among them those government, global corporate, academic and media types who are fashionably but mindlessly "post-American." Joining them as well are those numerous, greedy local business and homeowners ever on the lookout for the cheapest labor. To preserve and advance the institutions and freedoms of American society, Krikorian favors reducing the illegal immigrant population over time by encouraging attrition - lack of hiring, for instance, most often leads such persons to return home. Similarly, he favors reducing the legal immigrant population from its current, too high annual rate. In both cases, his motive is not xenophobia, but rather the desire to allow for the traditional assimilation of newcomers into a once again properly valued, common American civic culture. Especially winning in his presentation is the recognition that in the current permissive immigration mess, the principal enemies are us.

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