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The nativist segment of our society is determined to believe that they are having a positive effect on our nation by pushing for policies that let those dreaded “foreigners” know they’re not welcome in this country.
They have taken various surveys that indicate superficial levels of people leaving places such as Arizona that are peddling hateful policies and rancid rhetoric, and claim it is evidence they are succeeding.
WHICH MEANS I am curious to see how they try to discredit the Pew Hispanic Center’s latest study – one that says the total number of people living in this country without citizenship or a valid visa has been on the decline for years.
These people, after all, want us to believe that it is all these “illegals” (not even really people) who are causing all of our society’s problems. And the only reason that the Latino population is growing so significantly, they want to believe, is because all these Latin American foreigners are trying to sneak into the country.
For the record, the Pew study says we probably have about 11.1 million people living in the United States these days in violation of federal immigration policy. Just two years ago, the Pew group claimed we had 12 million people living in violation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement rules (although Latino activists have a point when they claim that any estimate of a total of people living illegally in the United States is flawed and nothing more than a wild guess).
This is the first drop in the estimated total of “illegal aliens” (federal jargon that the nativists are determined to implement into everyday English) in two decades.
YET IT COMES at a time when the total Latino population continues to rise – the most educated guesses claim that when the U.S. Census Bureau next year releases the results of this year’s Census population count, it will show that Latinos are 18 percent of the nation’s people count.
That is up from 12 percent for the last official Census, and up from the 15/16 percent estimates that the Census Bureau has made in recent years.
The Latino population really shouldn’t be the primary focus of immigration to the United States (Arabs, particularly those who are of Islamic religious beliefs, are the truly new group to come to this country). We’re at the point where our population is largely home-born. And because it is a younger-than-average population, it is one that will continue to grow.
Which means no matter how much some people push for hateful immigration policies, they’re ultimately going to find out that even if they get implemented (and I personally have enough faith in the real “American way” to know they won’t be), it won’t significantly reduce the Latino numbers – which all too often seems like it is the real goal of policies such as giving local cops greater authority over federal policies or trying to deny U.S. citizenship to people who were born in this country,.
FOR THE RECORD, it seems that many of the people who have continued to come despite the lack of a visa (or overstayed the terms thereby making their visa invalid) are from Mexico – which makes sense because it is a neighboring nation. Then again, more visas are issued to Mexican citizens than those of any other nation. People from Latin American nations other than Mexico coming to this country have declined by 22 percent, according to the Pew study.
It only makes sense that our neighbors are going to be someone we have to work with to develop an immigration policy – not regard as an enemy that must be repelled.
So what is causing the decline?
It is not so much the nativist fantasy of people leaving. It is fewer deciding that the hassle of coming here to find work is not worth it at a time when jobs are fewer.
FROM 2000 TO 2005, an average of 800,000 people were coming to this country without that valid visa each year. But last year, the total was only about 300,000.
That’s quite a drop, even though there are bound to be some people who will want to disregard it because it doesn’t fit their ideological hangups about a foreign “invasion.”
One other fact to consider, that in 2009, 29 percent of all non-citizens living in the United States had legal issues with Immigration. That is down from 31 percent just two years earlier.
Could it really be that the people who are so eager to push for restrictive policies are just showing their pettiness by trying to overstate the significance for an “illegal” invasion that is actually on the decline?
WHICH MAKES ME believe that the real problem isn’t people coming here from other countries. It is that when it comes to immigration, too many of us are willing to listen to the knuckleheads among us who spew their rants with disregard to fact.
We’d all be better off if we paid these folks less mind. Most of them are going to go through their lives angry. We shouldn’t let it affect the rest of us.
The nativist segment of our society is determined to believe that they are having a positive effect on our nation by pushing for policies that let those dreaded “foreigners” know they’re not welcome in this country.
They have taken various surveys that indicate superficial levels of people leaving places such as Arizona that are peddling hateful policies and rancid rhetoric, and claim it is evidence they are succeeding.
WHICH MEANS I am curious to see how they try to discredit the Pew Hispanic Center’s latest study – one that says the total number of people living in this country without citizenship or a valid visa has been on the decline for years.
These people, after all, want us to believe that it is all these “illegals” (not even really people) who are causing all of our society’s problems. And the only reason that the Latino population is growing so significantly, they want to believe, is because all these Latin American foreigners are trying to sneak into the country.
For the record, the Pew study says we probably have about 11.1 million people living in the United States these days in violation of federal immigration policy. Just two years ago, the Pew group claimed we had 12 million people living in violation of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement rules (although Latino activists have a point when they claim that any estimate of a total of people living illegally in the United States is flawed and nothing more than a wild guess).
This is the first drop in the estimated total of “illegal aliens” (federal jargon that the nativists are determined to implement into everyday English) in two decades.
YET IT COMES at a time when the total Latino population continues to rise – the most educated guesses claim that when the U.S. Census Bureau next year releases the results of this year’s Census population count, it will show that Latinos are 18 percent of the nation’s people count.
That is up from 12 percent for the last official Census, and up from the 15/16 percent estimates that the Census Bureau has made in recent years.
The Latino population really shouldn’t be the primary focus of immigration to the United States (Arabs, particularly those who are of Islamic religious beliefs, are the truly new group to come to this country). We’re at the point where our population is largely home-born. And because it is a younger-than-average population, it is one that will continue to grow.
Which means no matter how much some people push for hateful immigration policies, they’re ultimately going to find out that even if they get implemented (and I personally have enough faith in the real “American way” to know they won’t be), it won’t significantly reduce the Latino numbers – which all too often seems like it is the real goal of policies such as giving local cops greater authority over federal policies or trying to deny U.S. citizenship to people who were born in this country,.
FOR THE RECORD, it seems that many of the people who have continued to come despite the lack of a visa (or overstayed the terms thereby making their visa invalid) are from Mexico – which makes sense because it is a neighboring nation. Then again, more visas are issued to Mexican citizens than those of any other nation. People from Latin American nations other than Mexico coming to this country have declined by 22 percent, according to the Pew study.
It only makes sense that our neighbors are going to be someone we have to work with to develop an immigration policy – not regard as an enemy that must be repelled.
So what is causing the decline?
It is not so much the nativist fantasy of people leaving. It is fewer deciding that the hassle of coming here to find work is not worth it at a time when jobs are fewer.
FROM 2000 TO 2005, an average of 800,000 people were coming to this country without that valid visa each year. But last year, the total was only about 300,000.
That’s quite a drop, even though there are bound to be some people who will want to disregard it because it doesn’t fit their ideological hangups about a foreign “invasion.”
One other fact to consider, that in 2009, 29 percent of all non-citizens living in the United States had legal issues with Immigration. That is down from 31 percent just two years earlier.
Could it really be that the people who are so eager to push for restrictive policies are just showing their pettiness by trying to overstate the significance for an “illegal” invasion that is actually on the decline?
WHICH MAKES ME believe that the real problem isn’t people coming here from other countries. It is that when it comes to immigration, too many of us are willing to listen to the knuckleheads among us who spew their rants with disregard to fact.
We’d all be better off if we paid these folks less mind. Most of them are going to go through their lives angry. We shouldn’t let it affect the rest of us.
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