It may be too late to save the delta smelt. But perhaps we will learn from this experience that America's immigration-driven population growth is driving species to the brink of extinction all over the country; not in theory, but in practice.
The current and former Labor Secretaries offer distinctly different visions of the path forward. Do we give up on sidelined Americans and import workers who will gladly accept the wages and conditions that aren't good enough to retain American labor? Or do we limit immigration to the point where American industries might have to go outside their comfort zone to re-engage the domestic workforce?
The average American's ecological footprint is about 15 football fields. People come here to live like Americans. The U.S. issues over a million green cards every year. An estimated 900,000 migrants were released into the U.S. last year after entering illegally. Another estimated 600,000 avoided apprehension at the border. Assuming average American consumption, the ecological footprint of last year's immigration (legal and illegal) would be 37.5 million football-fields worth of nature.
Economic migration is logical and natural. And we must put limits on it to keep environmental impacts within reason.
The loss and destruction of critical habitat needs no Cassandra to prophecy where our current trajectory might lead when we have an abundance of indicators that tell us unequivocally where we are right at this moment. We are responsible for correcting damaging practices within our own borders. That means adopting annual immigration limits.
Hope for the new Congress, that they may be firm in their commitment to restore credibility to our immigration system, and to reform it so that it may serve the American interest, protect the vulnerable, and leave a healthy land of opportunity for future generations.
Habitat corridors across the American landscape are being extinguished. Good faith efforts to save them can only hope to mitigate the loss if the national population continues to increase by some 2-plus million additional residents each year. Yet some of the most powerful supporters of 30x30 also favor accelerating immigration-driven population growth.
Millions of Americans limit their personal consumption to conserve natural resources. But there is a movement afoot to ask Americans to sacrifice not for nature's sake, but in order to pack more people into the country, the states, cities and towns. We are being asked to conserve more individually so we can consume more collectively. With our total ecological footprint already well beyond our biocapacity, moderating immigration numbers back to the levels of even the 1980s would be among the top priorities of a sensible Congress.
We can celebrate immigrants and acknowledge the history of mass immigration and the depression of Black wealth.
Due to our affluence, population growth in the United States has a far greater impact than growth in other nations, and we are already running an ecological deficit.