Therefore, he suggested, legislation to reduce immigration is silly. This country will be better off if the population rises to 342 million by the year 2020, with immigration at the rate of 1.37 million per year. I can picture Mr. Wattenberg sitting at his desk with his calculator, arriving at those neat figures. They look sensible if you leave out all considerations except the numbers. But, oh, those other considerations.
People pollute, and people consume resources.
Americans are the world's greatest consumers, and immigrants soon develop into typical American users of natural resources. Mr. Wattenberg's solution would lead to more rapid environmental degradation, greater dependence upon imports of oil and other natural resources, pressure on water supplies, forests, open spaces and crowding. All advocates of increased immigration and pollution are incapable of imagining the consequences of what they advocate. They are not visionaries, and that includes Ben Wattenberg. U.S. Population T oday's immigrants generally have higher fertility levels than that of the native population which will pose great challenges in designing public policy for the future.