Is immigration from third world countried jeopardizing American economy and culture?

Currently, the United States accepts over one million legal immigrants every year. The number of illegal immigrants is probably exceeding that number by a long shot. Seventy percent of the United States' population growth is due to immigration. This extreme number of immigrants has simply overwhelmed our country's ability to continue to provide for newcomers and natives alike, and in many cases has only added to America's problems. Our country is already burdened by under funded schools, overcrowded prisons, persistent unemployment, increasingly violent crime, accelerating resource depletion, an ever-growing budget deficit and a rapidly decreasing quality of life. The addition of over one million immigrants to our country every year will only make these problems worse and also more difficult to solve.

"Every person leaves an 'eco-logical footprint' on the Earth, that amount which, assuming it is endowed with an average amount of resources, is necessary to sustain one human being indefinitely.

United States

United States

United States

The average American's ecological footprint is about 1.2 acres, an area far greater than taken up by one's residence and place of school or work and other places where he or she is. Those additional 1.2 acres supply the average American with food, fiber, and other resources, as well as capacity for waste assimilation and disposal." However, with this being said, this quantity of land necessary for each American cannot be met due to our increasing population.

This creates a serious threat to our limited natural resources such as topsoil, forests, clean air and water, and healthy ecosystems. If present trends of topsoil loss continue, "only 0.6 acres of arable land per person will be available in 2050, whereas more than 1.2 acres per person are needed to provide a diverse diet (currently, 1.6 acres of arable land are available)."

Not only is our environment suffering from the...