The Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2001 (H.R. 2712), introduced by Representative Tom Tancredo, R (CO), Chairman of the House Immigration Caucus, is the best Immigration Reduction Bill in two decades! It sends a clear message to mass immigration supporters in the Bush Administration and Congress that we want a Moratorium, not an Amnesty or a Guestworker program. If enacted it will help protect our environment from unrelenting population growth.

Enactment of this Bill would reduce legal immigration from over 1 million a year to about 300,000 a year, a huge and essential first step towards U.S. population stabilization, since immigration causes over 70% of U.S. population growth and over 90% of population growth in California, Florida, and New York. It will also increase the chances of laid off American workers finding jobs.

The Bill would enact a five-year MORATORIUM on immigration in specified categories. Specifically, it would:

• Result in total immigration of about 300,000 per year, while still allowing the migration of spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, and 25,000 refugees;
• End chain migration of extended family members in the Diversity Visa Lottery;
• Prohibit H1-B visa holders from adjusting their status to that of permanent residents;
• Require immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship to renounce citizenship in other countries.

Guest Worker Program Could Include Stealth Amnesty

Late in July, the Bush Administration and the Democratic Congressional leadership announced their support for amnesty of 3 million (primarily Mexican) aliens residing illegally in the United States. The Bush Administration and a number of Congressional Democrats and Republicans are also pushing a Guestworker program, possibly including a "stealth amnesty" provision.

Certain members of Congress are pushing to expand the amnesty to millions of additional illegal aliens from other countries demanding legalization. The amnesty would both reward lawbreaking and spur U.S. population growth. These Amnesty and Guestworker Bills must be stopped because:

• Tens of thousand of American workers are being laid off, with more to come.
• Legalization would propel the United States ever more quickly toward a population of a half a billion persons prior to 2050, with all the negative consequences that would entail, including environmental degradation, pollution, depletion of our aquifers and natural resources, crowding, traffic congestion, and other environmental and infrastructure costs.
• One acre of natural habitat or farmland is converted to built-up space or highway for each person added to the U.S. population, [Dr. David Pimentel of Cornell University]. Other deleterious effects of U.S. population growth are listed in the "U.S. Population Growth (Fact Sheet)".
• Each person added to a community costs each taxpayer in that locality $15,378 (national average) in infrastructure costs, [Carrying Capacity Network, 1998].
• The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average adult Mexican immigrant is a negative $55,200, [Center for Immigration Studies, 2001].
• The cost of immigration to taxpayers in 1997 was a net (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 billion a year, [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University].
• The proposed Guestworker Program could include a "Stealth Amnesty"of illegal aliens, as a result of the hush hush negotiations between the Bush Administration and Senior Mexican Officials in the Mexico Working Group.

Special Interests in Both Parties Seek to Ram Bills Through Congress Despite Harm to American Workers

An Amnesty or a Guestworker program would create reduced opportunities for re-employment at a living wage for laid-off American workers because of immigrant competition. Immigration causes American workers to lose $133 billion in wage depression and job loss to foreign workers annually, according to Professor George Borjas of Harvard University. Legalization of illegals or a guestworker program would increase competition for American jobs and put downward pressure on wages, especially for the least skilled American workers.

Legalization of illegal aliens rewards lawbreakers (who leapfrog persons waiting to enter the United States legally), and it puts their relatives in privileged positions to apply to migrate to the U.S., thus creating a demand for additional amnesties and more immigration.

Previous amnesties, including the amnesty of over 3 million illegal aliens in 1986 (touted then as the "one-time only" amnesty), have always resulted in encouraging even more people to enter the United States illegally in hopes of getting yet another amnesty.

The special interests who want more cheap labor and certain professional ethnic groups who do not represent the best interests or views of their grassroots constituents (despite harm to American workers) are seeking to ram amnesty and guestworker bills through Congress for their own narrow self-interest. And the Big Media generally fail to report the negative effects of mass immigration on the American people. Therefore the only solution is to build our grassroots efforts to overcome the special interests.