By Jeremy Beck
Congress has just 24 legislative days left to leave America with a better immigration policy. Politico published a list of lawmakers’ “must-do” legislation this week and immigration wasn’t on it. The counter on our homepage has been ticking down the days, hours, and seconds since this Congress started in January of last year. Most of … Continued
America’s rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers face growing demands as the population increases. With immigration accounting for much of recent U.S. population growth, federal immigration policy has important consequences for water supplies, drought resilience, and the ability of communities to absorb unexpected disruptions.
The Pueblo sewage spill contaminated Colorado’s Arkansas River with millions of gallons of untreated wastewater, highlighting the vulnerability of already-stressed water resources. As immigration-driven population growth increases demands on limited water supplies and wastewater infrastructure, communities face growing environmental risks and less capacity to absorb unexpected disruptions.
California’s dramatic growth over the past half-century has transformed its landscape. Paving Paradise examines how immigration-driven population growth has contributed to sprawling development, the loss of farmland and natural habitat, and growth pressures that increasingly extend beyond California’s borders.
By NumbersUSA
California’s population has doubled over the past five decades,” said Leon Kolankiewicz, an environmental planner and the report’s lead author. “That growth naturally led to sprawl, as developers constructed new homes, roads, and office parks to meet demand. In fact, our analysis shows that population growth drove 91% of the total loss of open land.
“How big do we want to be?” Mass immigration is the determining factor in the size of our country, the amount of infrastructure that must be built, resources to be used, and quality of life that we live.
The Colorado River faces a long-term imbalance between water supply and demand. Conservation can help, but with agriculture already under pressure, limiting future population growth through reduced immigration deserves consideration as a demand-management strategy.
More than 10,000 homes on the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe still lack running water despite long-promised Colorado River water rights. As immigration-driven population growth increases demand across the Southwest, keeping those promises becomes more difficult.
America’s national parks are struggling with increasing congestion and overcrowding. Given that immigration has become the primary driver of U.S. population growth, how much immigration can America sustainably accommodate while preserving the open spaces, recreational opportunities, and quality of life that Americans cherish?
