Immigration at over one million per year strains our quality of life, our environment, and adds to our fiscal and social burdens. I hope that you will take a leading role in working to get the immigration flood under control. The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform provided a blueprint for bringing immigration policy into line with national needs. Congress deferred action on that agenda in 1996, and it is overdue now in returning to that difficult, but essential, responsibility. Instead of being a burden, our country's immigration policy should be one that admits immigrants on the basis of what they can contribute to the United States.
Many immigrants now join the working poor, relying on public assistance for their well being.
By reducing immigration we will be able to expand educational opportunities, provide more entry level jobs for our people who are now on welfare, strengthen our labor force, shore up the shrinking middle class and revitalize the ladder of upward mobility. Immigration reform can provide a system that is in the best interest of both our native-born and immigrant populations. Please support efforts to reduce immigration and make sure that those who immigrate can be usefully harnessed to moving the nation ahead.