Speech #970223881

I am certain there may still be some of my colleagues thinking. "well. so what?" Why should we do anything? Let me make an effort to explain why those persons. as elected representatives on behalf of the American public. should be concerned. Net immigration. legal plus illegal. 750.000 per year. A net immigration of 750.000 would lead to a U.S. population in 100 years of 300 million. even if it were assumed that the fertility rate of the existing population remains at its present low level. which seems improbable. and if the fertility rate of the new immigrants immediately declines to that of the present population as a whole. which is even less probable. given the high fertility rates of the countries from which most of the immigrants now come. About 100 million of this 300 million would consist of immigrants arriving after 1980. and their descendants. Indeed. these overall figures actually underestimate the impact of immigration. since it may actually be concentrated in only a few regions of the country. For example. under the same assumptions and assuming continuance of existing settlement patterns. the population of California would double by 2080. Over onehalf of the States population would consist of post1980 immigrants and their descendants. I am not going to delve into the problems of excessive population. Those items are well known and there are organizations that express that very clearly and very sincerely. I shall not discuss them. Not only is the total number of legal and illegal immigrants high. but less than 5 percent even of the legal immigrants are individually admitted on the basis of characteristics which are likely to benefit the Nation as a whole. and this is limited only to an analysis of labor market impact. As a result of this and of the fact that the present procedures for the determining of the effect on the labor market would appear to be of limited effectiveness. I believe that our present policies have produced adverse job impacts. especially upon lowincome. lowskilled Americanswho are the most likely to face direct competition.