The Census Bureau's latest report shows that there are currently 42.1 million immigrants- legal and illegal- in the U.S., a record high.
The Washington Examiner provides the details: (emphasis mine)
In a report provided to Secrets by the Center for Immigration Studies, the total immigrant population surged 1.7 million since 2014. The growth was led in the last year by an additional 740,000 Mexican immigrants.
The 42.1 million tabulated by Census in the second quarter represent over 13 percent of the U.S. population, the biggest percentage in 105 years.
What's more, the numbers of immigrants coming and going from the U.S. is actually higher since many return home every years, said the report. "For the immigrant population to increase by one million means that significantly more than one million new immigrants must enter the country because some immigrants already here return to their homeland each year and natural mortality totals 250,000 annually," said the Center.
The Examiner also presented key findings from the report:
Growth in the last year was led by a rebound in the number of Mexican immigrants, which increased by 740,000 from 2014 to 2015 — accounting for 44 percent of the increase in the total immigrant population in the last year.
The total Mexican immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 12.1 million in the second quarter of 2015 — the highest quarterly total ever.
The Department of Homeland Security and other researchers have estimated that eight in 10 illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Latin America, so the increase in immigrants from these countries is an indication that illegal immigration has begun growing again.
The Examiner credits the surge in immigration due to an uprising in green cards- most of them being Latin Americans- and companies taking advantage of cheap foreign labor.
This is troubling for a number of reasons. Controlled legal immigration, with assimilation, is a good thing. But unfortunately, the current immigration system does not feature assimilation and is not controlled.
Having 1.7 million new immigrants entering the U.S. is really high. As Mark Levin writes in his new book "Plunder and Deceit: Big Government's Exploitation of Young People and the Future" (you can read my review on it here), there were 8.8 million immigrants entering the U.S. between 1901 and 1910, followed by 5.7 million between 1911 and 1920, slightly over 4 million between 1921 and 1930, with similar numbers continuing until 1970.
The immigration levels changed when the Hart-Celler Act was signed into law in 1965, as the Center for Immigration Studies writes: (emphasis mine)
The unexpected result has been one of the greatest waves of immigration in the nation's history — more than 18 million legal immigrants since the law's passage, over triple the number admitted during the previous 30 years, as well as uncountable millions of illegal immigrants. And the new immigrants are more likely to stay (rather than return home after a time) than those who came around the turn of the century. Moreover, this new, enlarged immigration flow came from countries in Asia and Latin America which heretofore had sent few of their sons and daughters to the United States. And finally, although the average level of education of immigrants has increased somewhat over the past 30 years, the negative gap between their education and that of native-born Americans has increased significantly, creating a mismatch between newcomers and the needs of a modern, high-tech economy.
In "Plunder and Deceit," Levin cites Harvard professor Dr. Samuel Huntington's book, "Who Are We? The Challenges of America's National Identity," to explain how assimilation is not occurring: (emphasis mine)
"Assimilation of current immigrants... likely to be slower, less complete, and different from the assimilation of earlier immigrants. Assimilation no longer means Americanization."
How exactly can we survive as a society when we have millions of new immigrants coming in that aren't assimilating? A huge factor in the fall of Rome was the lack of assimilation, after all.
Levin cites Princeton University professor Dr. Douglas Massey in explaining how this causes various groups to "self-segregate":
"The character of ethnicity will determined relatively more by immigrants and relatively less by later generations, shifting the balance of ethnic identity toward the language, culture, and ways of life in the sending society."
In addition, uncontrolled immigration allows companies to hire cheap, foreign labor, which ruins job opportunities for American workers.
Levin debunks the myth that immigrants do jobs that Americans won't do, citing statistics from the Census showing that out of 472 civilian occupations, only six are considered to be dominated by immigrant workers- one percent of the workforce. In addition, even though American citizens consisted of 66 percent of the population growth between 2000-2014, immigrants were 100 percent of employment growth during that same time frame. This clearly suggests that jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to find due to immigration, and now that there's a record 42.1 million immigrants in the county it's going to be even more difficult to find employment. Especially for the youth.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the problem isn't just controlling illegal immigration, it's about controlling legal immigration as well. GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a plan to reduce legal immigration levels by 25 percent. That's a good start. Sen. Jeff Sessions has also called for restrictions in immigration levels. More candidates and politicians need to get on board, although I'm not holding my breath.