Crowded Land of Liberty: Solving America's Immigration Crisis

by Dirk Chase Eldredge

Overview

This book examines the impact of immigration on U.S. society—on schools, social services, jobs, taxpayers. This book offers alternatives to present policies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781882593675
Publisher:	Bridgeworks
Publication date:	12/09/2002
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.24(w) x 7.92(h) x 0.54(d)

Table of Contents

	Author's Preface	ix
Chapter 1	Why a Crisis?	1
Chapter 2	Good Intentions Gone Awry	21
Chapter 3	The H-1B and Its Discontents	32
Chapter 4	Down on the Farm	45
Chapter 5	Chain Immigration Perils	55
Chapter 6	The Futility of Sponsorship	64
Chapter 7	Asylum and Amnesty	73
Chapter 8	Open Borders? They're Porous Already	87
Chapter 9	Assimilation Is Not Working	108
Chapter 10	A New Beginning	132
	Bibliography	151
	Index	165

Editorial Reviews

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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Kirkus Reviews