Our crowded country must limit newcomers
January 19, 2009

Many people repeat the pro-illegal immigration mantra that "America was built by immigrants." And it's true that many of our ancestors were immigrants. But the country was not overpopulated when waves of immigrants arrived in the distant past.

The U.S. population is now more than 300 million. Forty years ago, it was less than 200 million. And we now have water shortages, power shortages, jammed highways, disappearing open spaces and more and more pollution and crime.

Now imagine if we were to add 100 million more people every 40 years. That would be unsustainable.

We need to work on serious population control overall, including for native-born citizens. But for people such as the writer of the recent letter "Nation of immigrants can't close its doors" (Jan. 12) to suggest that we should just let in anyone who wants to come is irrational.

If the nation is struggling with its current population, just imagine adding millions to the count every year. Michelle AlstonBaltimore

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