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The Trouble With Immigration
December 2005

Foreigners can bring more than just their luggage.

Over 1.2 million legal and illegal immigrants settle on American soil each year. Since 1990, the number of aliens living in the United States has mushroomed 43 percent; the Latino population alone doubled between 1980 and 2000, constituting 40 percent of all U.S. growth. Today, 1 in 10 people in America is a foreigner.

The immigration explosion is not exclusive to the U.S. Fully 40 percent of today’s Canadians were either born abroad or are the children of Canadians born elsewhere. By 2011, immigrants are projected to account for all net population growth in Canada.

Over the next 25 years, 84 percent of the United Kingdom’s population growth is expected to come from immigration.

As for illegal immigration, national borders are more porous than ever. In Canada, “gaps in Canada’s border security are so severe that an airport accepts international passengers without on-site immigration checks, a marine border unit has no boat, a computer glitch systematically hides information about terrorists, and officers at 62 border crossings are unable to link to a computer to screen incoming travelers� (National Post, April 11).

In the crowded UK, where the population is roughly 60 million, an estimated 500,000 workers are thought to be illegal. If spouses, dependents and those not working are added, the “illegal� population is close to 1 million and climbing.

Governments are polarized over the issue. In America, some yearn to liberalize immigration laws. Others assert that uncontrolled immigration has burgeoned into a huge disaster that is rapidly getting worse.

The debate in England over immigration and multiculturalism has taken on extra meaning since London’s terrorist bombings in July. In a few states in the U.S., illegal immigration has become so prevalent and its negative effects so dire that the state government has declared certain counties to be in a “state of emergencyâ€?â€â€