Liberal Mass Immigration Policy: Noble, Sincere, But Naive - Worse Than Sisyphus - Disastrous to US

By Aaron Kolom
Although sympathetic and truly identifying with the plight and hopes of would-be immigrants (both legal and illegal, since perhaps 97 % of Americans are immigrants or descendants therefrom), the well-intentioned, open immigration policy of the liberal-left is not only impractically idealistic, but would be totally ineffective and actually destructive to the US. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king, punished by the gods to continually roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down; then to repeat the process. The liberal's "comprehensive immigration", policy is much worse than the Sisyphus dilemma, since, even maximizing annual immigration, the growing world percentage of poverty stricken would be unaffected (like a thimbleful of "help" versus an open spigot of "need"), the situation worsening, year by year. Also, and hardly negligible, it would inevitably and completely destroy America itself, the life-style of which has been the beacon attracting immigrants for centuries. Thus, this liberal idealism is like a perpetual childish belief in Santa Claus or a Tooth Fairy - and hard, cold numbers tell the story of reality.

America, with 330 or so million inhabitants (having the world's highest living standards and freedoms), absorbs about 1 million legal immigrants per year. The world population is about 6.5 billion people, and shocking (and unknown to most everyone) is the large number of those with income levels of only about $2/day (the US poverty level is about ten times higher - standard, a family of four). Data from the World Bank - peoples living on less than $2 a day, is like a shock of ice-water to the face: Africa - 650 million; India - 890 million; China - 480 million; Latin countries - 105 million; the world total about three billion people - almost half of the entire world population - living on but $2 a day.

In the analogy to Sisyphus for world poverty, each year the hill would become higher and higher, since - despite anything the US can do (even with completely open immigration), the world poverty situation will continue to worsen. The harsh reality is that world population (births minus deaths) grows about 80 million a year, about 35 million more each year of those at this true poverty level. Thus, if the US even doubled or trebled the number of immigrants it absorbs, it wouldn't make a dent in the increasing number of impoverished peoples. And the unrecognized reality by many, is that our country's economy is already straining under the current absorption of only one million immigrants a year (schooling, medical treatments, police, penal institutions, food stamps and common-place welfare); to even double the level would be an economic disaster.

A Mr. Roy Beck, who lectures on the subject, has developed a novel presentation about "World Poverty, Immigration and Gumballs", using gumballs and jars, representing respectively, a million people and countries. Attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers on the Internet, his knock-out conclusion is a cascade of gumballs overflowing the containers representing the US and world, onto the stage and floor of the auditorium. As a note of interest and emphasizing how little US policy re illegal immigrants (almost all from Mexico) affects the world situation, using Mexican income level as threshhold, the World Bank data is that 5.6 billion people (91%) are at income levels less than in Mexico. The sad reality - what sympathetic liberals, Congress, the President, and all America must learn - the plight of the world's impoverished can be helped only where they live!

Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant.