This past weekend I attended two days of meetings in Washington about immigration. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the subject and to meet national leaders from around the country. From time to time I’ll refer to aspects of the meeting as it relates to other things we are writing about at Refugee Resettlement Watch.
But this morning, I’ll just tell you about this one eye-opener. The immigration reform movement encompasses people from across the political spectrum.
My education and early employment was in the environmental field. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that many environmentalists have found a home with those seeking to stop illegal immigration and reform legal immigration. The major national environmental groups are so fearful of their leftwing funders that they shun the issue. But, many environmentalists see the ever-increasing numbers of immigrants as a severe threat to open space, clean water, clean air and just the overall quality of life.
Steve Camarata of the Center for Immigration Studies reported on his statistical work that predicts a 100 million increase in US population by 2050 almost exclusively due to immigration if it remains at the present level. The audience that heard this information, again across the entire political spectrum, is not moved by any multicultural/diversity is great/save all the people of the world yammering we are so used to hearing in our local and national media. The focus was entirely on what hard policy decisions do we make now that will bring America through this century as the greatest nation on earth in which to live.