Crowded Land of Liberty: Solving America's Immigration Crisis

by Dirk Chase Eldredge Narrated by Jeff Riggenbach

Overview

The number of legal immigrants accelerated in the 1990s to an average of more than a million a year. That was up from just over 300,000 a year in the 1960s and 600,000 a year by the 1980s. When the number of illegal immigrants is added to this, the total inflow during the 1990s was approximately 12 million. That compares with 500,000 in the 1930s.

Crowded Land of Liberty examines how this developed into a crisis contributing to overcrowded schools, soaring demand for social services, new burdens on taxpayers, increased urban congestion, and heightened job competition. The author explains how recent waves of immigration differ from those of earlier eras, and he explores new public policy alternatives.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The longstanding, passionate debate about whether, and how much, to allow immigration to the U.S. continues today, focusing on recent presidential and congressional proposals to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. This short volume tips its polemic hand in its subtitle with the assumption that America has an "immigration crisis," but presents a fiercely argued political and social case for radically changing federal law and limiting the number of new immigrants. Acknowledging the positive social impact of earlier waves of immigration, Eldredge presents numerous reasons why a more open immigration policy is no longer feasible. Citing a number of reasons e.g., new immigrants inflict a "crushing burden on our already disenfranchised underclass" and "future population growth" brings with it "twin scourges of overcrowding and environmental damage" Eldredge, a Reagan campaign official, banker and author of Ending the War on Drugs, argues that changes in 1965 drastically increased immigration (1.8 million in 1991) to what is now a breaking point. Along with this, he believes that new immigrants are less willing to assimilate and that the essential nonenforcement of the U.S. ban on dual citizenship creates a dangerous precedent of dual loyalties in the case of war. His solutions include a decade of "near zero immigration," the implementation of a Canadian-style program that would allow only immigrants whose age and skills would benefit the U.S. economy and making borders nonporous. While he understands the explosive political implications of his theory "I reject any suggestion that I am racist, bigoted, or anti-immigrant" his arguments might be taken more seriously if he had includedfootnotes to his many references, as well as harder economic and sociological statistics. (Nov.) Forecast: This will appeal primarily to a small core of conservative readers. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A slender work that examines US immigration policies and offers suggestions on reducing legal and illegal immigration. Eldredge (Ending the War On Drugs, 1998), a former Reagan campaign official, believes that current US immigration levels have "brought us to the precipice of ecological and psychic disaster." He feels that immigrants with fewer marketable job skills are displacing the existing underclass as cheap labor, that they negatively affect the environment (due to "high fertility rates"), that skilled immigrants take away high-tech jobs from Americans (due to "H-1B" temporary visas issued to fill shortages, particularly in the engineering and computer fields), and that, in universities, foreign students are being educated at the expense of American ones. Eldredge places some of the blame for illegal immigration on the agriculture industry, chastising growers for not providing wages and living conditions that would attract American workers willing to migrate from crop to crop. In the high-tech fields, he argues that companies could train nationals rather than hire legal immigrants at lower wages. Ultimately, Eldredge would like to close US immigration for ten years, giving current immigrants time to assimilate. After a decade, he would end family reunification as the primary path of immigration and implement policies similar to Canada's: each potential immigrant would be given a certain number of points based on age, education, job skills, and ability for self-support for at least six months after arrival. In addition, citizens would cast their votes (at the state level) regarding immigration policy, choosing the number of immigrants allowed into the state each year, their minimumeducation level, and ranking the qualities of desirable applicants. Some ideas worth considering, though Eldredge's rhetoric can leave a bitter aftertaste.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169603460
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	04/06/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

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