Customer Reviews

The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"The New Case Against Immigration" cuts through distortions and P.C. positions on the topic with convincing and shocking data.

The 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants, along with the 17 million Americans of Mexican origin and another 16 million Cubans and other Hispanics total more than those of the next ten most common immigrant nations. Hispanics total about 50% of our total immigrants, posing major implications for assimilation. This is further acerbated by cheaper calls, easier access to Mexico, support from American businesses, and considerable legal support from the Mexican government and elites within the U.S.

Massive Mexican immigration into the U.S. is a relatively new problem - in 1970 less than 800,000 Mexicans were in the U.S. Once in the U.S., Mexican women's fertility rises from 2.4 (in Mexico) to 3.5 in the U.S. - considerably greater than native-born American women. (2002 data)

Mexican immigrants have the lowest citizenship rate - 19%, vs. 42% for Canadians, 54% for Chinese. They are also the least-educated major immigration group - 62% without a high-school education, while their children and grandchildren have a dropout rate of 25%. About 43% of illegal Mexican households use at least one major welfare program, and 50% are eligible for EITC. Even third generation Mexican-Americans use welfare at a level 3X that of American natives.

Over half of Mexicans believe the American S.W. belongs to them. Their consulates in the U.S. lobby for acceptance of matricula cards (opposed by the FBI as inadequate) for ID, in-state tuition, drivers licenses, sanctuary city status, etc.

Studies have found Mexican immigrants somewhat less likely to be criminals than native-born Americans, but their children are much more likely to be. Second-generation males aged 18-39 from El Salvador and Guatemala are incarcerated nearly 6X as often as their parents, those from Mexico 8X, and Vietnamese 12X.

Mass immigration overwhelms our capacity to screen out enemies or locate and remove them. A sampling found a high volume of fraud (40-80%) in H-1B, P-3 (artists and entertainers), L-1 (intra-company transfers) applications. Meanwhile, U.S. agencies held competitions in 2006 for the fastest processing times - approvals are the easiest.

Studies find illegal immigrants pulling down wages, especially at the bottom - about 40% in California between 1969-1997, and undermine the incentives to automate production. (Japan has decided to automate rather than import foreign workers.)

The U.S. spent about $4.5 billion subsidizing the education of foreign college students in 2005-06. Immigrants created about 86% of the growth in uninsured in 1998-2003; 47% of immigrant families were either uninsured or on Medicaid. The number of E.D.s in the U.S. fell 9% from 1993-2003, while visits increased 26%.

A 2004 Heritage Fund study found the average lifetime cost of low-skilled immigrant households was about $1.2 million to taxpayers - about the net benefit to taxpayers of a college-educated family.

Bottom Line: "The New Case Against Immigration" demands a stronger stand against both legal and illegal immigration. Its recommended direction is to continue the effort to prevent their taking American jobs, getting drivers licenses and benefits.

This book should be required reading by alll policy makers.
The author sets aside political correctness and writes facts and common sense. It is a well written book. I believe most of the people in the United States understand what impact immigration is having on our country and are puzzled why the policy makers think they are above it.
I ended up buying this book from Amazon. I had hoped our local library would get it. The said they wouldn't, since it had received bad reviews. Do I sense a selective form of censorship on the part of the local library?

Mark Krikorian has written a noble volume on current immigration problems, one refreshingly free of either mean-spiritedness or political partisanship. His thesis is that a common American civic culture is worth preserving - his opponents, therefore, include many current, confidence-lacking American citizens, chief among them those government, global corporate, academic and media types who are fashionably but mindlessly "post-American." Joining them as well are those numerous, greedy local business and homeowners ever on the lookout for the cheapest labor. To preserve and advance the institutions and freedoms of American society, Krikorian favors reducing the illegal immigrant population over time by encouraging attrition - lack of hiring, for instance, most often leads such persons to return home. Similarly, he favors reducing the legal immigrant population from its current, too high annual rate. In both cases, his motive is not xenophobia, but rather the desire to allow for the traditional assimilation of newcomers into a once again properly valued, common American civic culture. Especially winning in his presentation is the recognition that in the current permissive immigration mess, the principal enemies are us.

Mark Krikorian's splendid book on immigration policy ("both legal and illegal," as the sub-title says) will very likely be the definitive word on the subject for a decade or more. I've written a L O N G review of the book at www.vdare.com/nachman/080729_immigration.htm , so, instead of my filling up more cyberspace here, I invite those interested in the book to see what I said about it at that link. (Note that when I wrote my review, the book's chapter titles weren't available at the book's Amazon page.)

One of the things that I like most about this book is that it legitimizes debate not just about illegal immigration but about all immigration.

The USA is almost alone in the world in having been a country, in recent decades, where a majority of people had come to accept that any argument to limit legal immigration was morally reprehensible terrain that belonged only to racists. Thus, people concerned -- for a whole host of legitimate reasons -- with American immigration policy felt constrained to insist, hypocritically, that it was only ~illegal~ immigration that concerned them.

The fact that large waves of immigration have been good for America in the past does not by any means predict that similar levels of immigration would be beneficial in the future, a matter that Kirkorian examines in great detail.

Perhaps now, with this book, we can begin to have an honest, national conversation about immigration policy with the open-borders left less able to intimidate, browbeat, and marginalize any opponents of their agenda.

There have been many books written about immigration issues, but
"The New Case Against Immigration" by Mark Krikorian is the best compilation of data and observations addressing the immigration chaos that I have ever read.

The Minuteman Project strongly recommends this book to anyone seriously interested in the root causes, and the prospective solutions, to the immigration dilemma that jeopardizes the future of the United States as a sovereign, prosperous, and civilized nation.

Krikorian, the director of the Center For Immigration Studies (CIS),
a Washington, DC super think tank on immigration issues, brings his years of expertise on immigration issues together in one compelling, virtual bible for both novices and pundits alike.

"The New Case Against Immigration" should be part of any U.S. history or sociology program at all secondary and post-secondary schools across the nation.

Jim Gilchrist, President and Founder, The Minuteman Project

Even though this book's premise is about managing immigration levels for the benefit of the country as a whole and not for the immigrants or the businesses, it touches on the major critical issues of the day - economy, quality of life, environment, global warming, security, societal harmony, crime - in a holistic manner that does not ignore the 'elephant in the room' - the coming overpopulation in the USA.

Unfortunately though this book will ignored in favor of the Michael Moore's of the world - until a hundred years from now when it will become a classic.

Mark Krikorian has taken a fresh look at the immigration conundrum and in a well-research and well-documented book has marshaled new arguments that suggest we are headed down the wrong road on both legal and illegal immigration. I have made similar but less well-reasoned arguments related to the mathematical concept of a limit: the limit of finite natural resources per capita as population grows without bounds is zero. The question therefore becomes: How far down that road do we want to go? Krikorian, the grandson of Armenian immigrants, identifies a number of differences between the nature of our country and society now and during the earlier waves of immigration that made assimilation possible then but work against it today. One of the these ideas is the transnational community. When such a community reaches a critical mass in terms of population it becomes possible for its inhabitants to live full lives without assimilating culturally and linguistically and without changing their allegiance. This is an important book that every American should read, particularly members of congress and legislatures and candidates for state and federal office. Their myopia and inaction places America in grave danger.

Great Book!! Puts those who think immigration is harmless in thier place. Well written and unbiased. It is fair because it uses logic, and not emotions. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!

Although I have not yet read this book, I will be purchasing it. I have been VERY ACTIVE against ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. I am SO TIRED of hearing that there are between 12-20 million ILLEGAL MEXICANS in this country. They (the media) have been quoting the number 12 million for at least 3 years now. Come on, They just keep coming here every day. I'd say 20 million would be a much closer estimate! They are given FREE MEDICAL CARE, at the expense of the American taxpayers. Try to get medical care if you are an uninsured LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZEN. The US grants LEGAL CITIZENSHIP to more than 2 million people per year. That is more than ANY other country in the world! These "people" came and continue to come here ILLEGALLY and they are rewarded with special programs by our government, paid for, of course by our tax dollars. They have lowered the wage scale in a country where people are losing their jobs and homes (due to foreclosure) daily. Unfortunately, both Presidential candidates are all for AMNESTY! In New Jersey, approx. 57,000 people are leaving the state annually, Many are retired people who just cannot afford to retire in their home state. But I believe a percentage of those leaving the state are also families with children who can't afford to stay, perhaps due to job losses or home foreclosures. Yet, our "esteemed" governor has cut 2.9 billion dollars from our budget, mostly affecting hospitals and nursing homes, saying that this money is needed for school funding. He has also borrowed (and this state is "drowning" financially) 3.9 billion dollars for NEW SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION. Gee, I can only wonder why we need more schools, perhaps for the HUGE influx of the children of ILLEGALS! They are not generally known to have small families. After all, the more they have, the more they get. Also, we SHOULD NOT have to send Mexico 1.4 billion dollars to help them fight THEIR DRUG WAR. Mexico purchases gas refined in the US and then the Mexican govt. subsidizes it so that their citizens pay half per gallon of what we here in the US are paying! If they can afford to subsidize gas to their citizens, then they can pay for their own drug war!!!!