This Earth Day Resolve to Tell Your Members of Congress that Immigration is an Environmental Issue

by Rob Harding: I recently met with the staff of two of my three representatives here in Virginia. I'd like to briefly describe my experience with the hope that it might inspire you to pursue a similar conversation with your own representatives.

On this Earth Day, the clear ecological arguments for limiting immigration into the U.S. continue to be sidelined, or worse ignored, by those elected to represent us in Congress.

For those of us who understand that the health of our communities and the economy is dependent upon the health of the environment, it's imperative that we continue to communicate this message to our fellow Americans as well as our Congressional representatives and their staff.

Unfortunately, my recent experience suggested that the staff of the two Democratic offices I visited may not have much education in environmental sustainability. Do you think yours do?

CAVEAT: In those discussions with the staffs, I was speaking as a private citizen and not officially representing NumbersUSA. This allowed me talk about a broad range of my sustainability concerns. NumbersUSA, on the other hand, is a single-issue organization that deals with only the immigration part of environmental and population concerns.

In advance of each meeting, I submitted a few questions to serve as an agenda:(1) Why does it appear that [Congressman/Senator] considers aggregate economic growth (as measured by GDP) to be an unmitigated good? He appears to be using this to broadly support his position on immigration -- perhaps also viewing all immigration as an unmitigated good. I'd like to hear what you think, and whether you've considered the concept of a steady state economy (like that advocated by the organization CASSE) which doesn't have an underlying dependency on Ponzi demography.

(2) Assuming you are aware of America's rate of population growth, and assuming that you believe this continued population growth is acceptable, can you let me know why? How long do you believe we can sustain such growth? We are already facing undesirable consequences of such unsustainable population growth (e.g. biodiversity loss due to habitat loss/fragmentation, continued increases in GHG emissions contributing to further global climate disruption, wage suppression & increasing income/wealth inequality, dilution of democracy, etc.) Do you disagree with the 1972 Rockefeller Commission's recommendation that we pursue U.S. population stabilization? And more broadly, do you disagree with pursuing global population stabilization? If so, why?

(3) Are you aware that immigration (primarily legal immigration) is already the largest driver of continued population growth in the U.S.? And that recent projections from Pew Research Center show that under existing policies immigration is projected to account for 88% of all population growth -- over 100 million more people -- between 2015 and 2065? To be clear, I value immigration and have no issue with immigrants. I have an issue with this amount of rapid population growth which has proven to be an unsustainable net harm in its impact to the country and the planet, no matter the source (i.e. births or immigration). Why is your office not leading on openly discussing this in Congress and with your constituents? We can't grow forever.From my congressman's staff I heard that more immigration "is what businesses are telling us they need."

In other words, businesses are telling Congress that they "need" more people -- more workers and more consumers to purchase their goods and services -- and Congress is prioritizing that "need" above all else. I responded by telling her this is the same thing we hear from the Cato Institute and the Chamber of Commerce!

The staff member of one of my Senators, whose responsibilities include environmental and energy policy, was less familiar with immigration policy and the consequences of unsustainable population growth generally. I informed him about the Rockefeller Commission as well as the President's Council on Sustainable Development, whose recommendations included population stabilization, and explained that GDP was never intended to measure the health of the economy but simply the size of the economy. I also requested that he share my questions with his colleague who covers immigration policy for the Senator.

Please consider making your voice heard by contacting your Congressional representatives, and feel free to leverage the questions I shared if you'd like.
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Rob Harding shared this article via NumbersUSA.

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