100 Million More Immigrants in 20 Years?

100 Million More Immigrants in 20 Years?

NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

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The immigration reform bill now under congressional consideration would grant amnesty to some 10 million illegal immigrants – but its real effects would be much more far-reaching, according to an eye-opening study by the Heritage Foundation.

The foundation found that the changes in immigration law would allow an estimated 103 million persons to legally immigrate to the United States over the next 20 years and "dramatically" change "the character of the nation."

Current law allows 19 million legal immigrants over the next 20 years, so the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA), based largely on a compromise by Senators Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., would add an extra 84 million legal immigrants to the nation's population.

"The figure of 103 million legal immigrants is a reasonable estimate of the actual immigration inflow under the bill and not the maximum number that would be legally permitted to enter," the Heritage report by Robert Rector, senior research fellow in domestic policy studies, points out.

"The maximum number that could legally enter would be almost 200 million over 20 years — over 180 million more legal immigrants than current law permits."

The massive increase in the number of legal immigrants would result from several changes contained in CIRA:

The bill would grant amnesty to 85 percent of the current illegal immigrant population, or some 10 million individuals.

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Those receiving amnesty could bring their spouses and children into the United States as legal permanent residents with the opportunity for full citizenship. Heritage puts their number at 6 million.

CIRA creates a new "temporary guest-worker" program that is, in fact, anything but temporary. These workers would be allowed to remain in the United States for six years, but in the fourth year they could apply for legal permanent residence status if they have learned English or are enrolled in an English class.

In the first year, CIRA would allow 325,000 people to enter the United States under the guest-worker program, but the number could rise each year after that. The Heritage report estimates the total inflow of workers under this program at 20 million over 20 years.

Guest workers could bring their spouses and children to the United States as permanent residents, adding another 24 million immigrants over 20 years.

The bill would substantially increase the number of naturalized citizens, and they would have an unlimited right to bring their parents into the United States with legal permanent resident status. Heritage puts their number at 5 million over 20 years.

The number of secondary family members, such as adult brothers and sisters, would rise sharply and add more than 5 million new immigrants over 20 years.

The bill would greatly increase the number of employment-based green cards issued to 450,000 a year, and these immigrants could bring spouses and children with them, boosting immigration totals by another 13.5 million.

The Heritage Foundation concludes: "Although illegal immigration is considered a major problem, the proposed legal immigration under CIRA would dwarf it numerically ...

"If CIRA were enacted, and 100 million new immigrants entered the country over the next 20 years, foreign-born persons would rise to over one quarter of the U.S. population ...

"CIRA would transform the United States socially, economically and politically. Within two decades, the character of the nation would differ dramatically from what exists today."

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