08
Dec

Winter 2016-2017 Newsletter

Published on December 8th, 2016

caps_newsletter_winter.pdf

CAPS TV, Radio, Online Ad Campaigns Reach Millions

CAPS ran TV ads in Wisconsin for three weeks featuring Civil Rights leader and former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Frank Morris, reminding House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) that it’s not racist to put Americans’ jobs first.


CAPS is Plaintiff in Lawsuit Against DHS

CAPS is a primary plaintiff, one of nine, in a lawsuit brought by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), charging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with disregarding the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) when making decisions about our nation’s immigration policies.


First-Hand Look at U.S.-Canadian Border Security

CAPS National Media Director Joe Guzzardi had an up-close look at Canadian border security during an eight-day trip in mid-September that covered nearly 1,000 miles, hitting upstate New York, Vermont hill country, and Ottawa and Quebec, Canada..


Breathing California's Dirty Air Can Kill You

With all of California’s claims to fame, it has one residents would prefer not to own. The state has the “deadliest air in the country,” as reported by the CBS Evening News. In fact, California’s air quality was so poor that, for this summer through early August, there were only three days that met federal health standards for ozone levels.


Chairman's Message

Trump rides immigration and working class jobs issues to election victory.


Assessing the Environmental Impact of U.S. Immigration Levels
By Leon Kolankiewicz

The United States population is much larger today – by perhaps as much as 50 million – than it would have been had not U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy persuaded Congress and President Lyndon Johnson to support comprehensive immigration reform in 1965, opening the floodgates to modern mass immigration.


California Drought Continues to Deal Death to State's Unique, Rich Biodiversity

California has been in drought conditions of extreme proportions since 2012 – a new “normal.”


Feet to the Fire Event

CAPS National Media Director Joe Guzzardi participated in the annual Feet to the Fire event sponsored by FAIR, a national organization focused on immigration reform.


Frank Morris, Sr., Ph.D. Joins CAPS Advisory Board

CAPS is pleased to welcome Dr. Frank Morris to the CAPS Advisory Board.


CAPS Campaign Continues to Draw Awareness of Santuary City Problems

There is no common sense behind declaring a city a sanctuary for those in the country illegally, and public opinion bears out that belief.


CAPS TV, RADIO, ONLINE AD CAMPAIGNS REACH MILLIONS

The ad encouraged Speaker Ryan to stand up for working-class Americans instead of continuing his push for more foreign workers, more immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens. The ad concluded that slowing mass immigration and the flow of foreign workers so working-class Americans have a better chance at good jobs is simple common sense.

After the run of this ad, Ryan changed his stance regarding the importation of Syrian refugees. CAPS then adapted the Frank Morris TV ad for radio and ran the spot on several Los Angeles-area stations, including traditionally African-American stations. We also reworked the TV spot for prime time during the Republican National convention on CNN the night that Donald Trump gave his acceptance speech. The ad was seen by an estimated 2.5 to 3 million viewers.

New media online included production of videos and pre-roll advertising. Accusations of racism fly at even the slightest suggestion of reducing immigration these days, so CAPS used new media to counter the charge that working to fight mass immigration is racist. All too often this charge is used only to silence much-needed and potentially productive discussions. We reached more than half of a million people on social media with a video directing them to a petition on itsnotracist.com. The video shows how the term “racist” is used to shut down discussion and asks if it’s racist to enforce laws, subscribe to fairness, employ Americans and take care of homeless vets.

CAPS then ran a successful pre-roll campaign on foxnews.com using a revised 15-second cut of the It’s Not Racist video which reached more than 1 million viewers (combined Facebook and pre-roll). While this method of advertising will not replace radio and TV advertising for CAPS, it provides another cost-effective vehicle for sharing our messages.


CAPS IS PLAINTIFF IN LAWSUIT AGAINST DHS

CAPS is a primary plaintiff, one of nine, in a lawsuit brought by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), charging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with disregarding the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) when making decisions about our nation’s immigration policies.

The 1,400 page Complaint alleges that DHS disregarded NEPA and violated environmental law by neglecting the effects of unregulated immigration. Included are supporting affidavits by 7 CAPS affiliates.

These affidavits were submitted by CAPS Board Chairman Dick Schneider, former Colorado Governor and CAPS Advisory Board Member Richard Lamm, former CAPS Executive Director Ric Oberlink and Jo Wideman, current Executive Director of CAPS.

Stuart Hurlbert, President of Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization, CAPS member and former CAPS Board Member; Don Rosenberg, whose son was killed by an illegal alien, and CAPS member and CSU Northridge Professor Claude Willey also prepared affidavits.

Leslie Blackner, a long-time CAPS supporter and environmental law attorney, assisted in case preparation, along with Kristin Larson, CAPS Board Member and environmental law attorney.

“This is our opportunity to lay out, in as comprehensive a way as has ever been delineated, the cavalier way DHS implements immigration and immigration enforcement laws and the costs this has to the public,” said Julie Axelrod, lead IRLI attorney. “All we are asking for is that DHS follow the laws of transparency that other agencies must follow. It is long overdue.”

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court, Southern District for California, San Diego, and assigned to Judge M. James Lorenz, a Clinton appointee on Senior Status.

CAPS encourages members to write op-eds and blog posts, and use social media to drive public support of this landmark lawsuit. Contact CAPS if you need additional information.


FIRST-HAND LOOK AT U.S.-CANADIAN BORDER SECURITY

CAPS National Media Director Joe Guzzardi had an up-close look at Canadian border security during an eight-day trip in mid-September that covered nearly 1,000 miles, hitting upstate New York, Vermont hill country, and Ottawa and Quebec, Canada.

“The problems with the U.S.-Canadian border are different in scale from those on the U.S.-Mexican border,” said Guzzardi. “But the predictable mix of vulnerability, crime, desperation and exploitation can be found in Canada, like everywhere else where there is an international boundary.”

“It helps somewhat that both the United States and Canada are developed countries which somewhat eliminates the desire for established residents to cross illegally. The most pressing border problem now is not how to maintain order, but curbing the Canadian government’s enthusiasm to open the border to refugees and all French speakers,” concluded Guzzardi.

The trip substantiated for Guzzardi that mass immigration is not a distinctly American phenomenon, and that in Canada mass immigration is the de facto policy position. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, along with other Canadian leaders, sees the free movement of people as a human right, a view that increasingly reflects the globalist perspective on governance.

During the trip, former Canadian Ambassador James Bissett, a high-ranking immigration official for more than three decades who served as an aide to various prime ministers, talked about a rapidly changing demographic in Canada, under which some areas of the country have been completely transformed. He spoke to Trudeau’s embrace of the transformation and pledge to admit record numbers of immigrants, including from the Middle East, which continues to experience disruption due to war and political instability. As well, by year end, Canada will waive visa restrictions for Mexico, which has the potential to create a host of challenges for both Canada and the U.S.

On the border tour, Guzzardi had the opportunity to meet with Canadian residents who often noted how border crossings had changed in a post 9-11 world. He also met with current and retired U.S. border officials – all of whom were appreciative of the work CAPS does to raise awareness about the consequences of unchecked illegal immigration. And he witnessed the diligence of immigration agents on the northern border, even along extended, unpopulated stretches where only small stone markers indicate the Canadian- U.S. border line.

Canadian border patrol agents spoke of regular interdiction of aliens trying to cross into Canada. On one day, Guzzardi and his fellow travelers spoke with two officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who had just that morning intercepted a dozen Middle Easterners heading north from Vermont. The RCMP said they detain illegal aliens from all over the world. Many are drawn to Canada because of its generous asylum policies.

Canadian border patrol also deals with trafficking of contraband cigarettes, marijuana, heroin and firearms. As at the southern border of the U.S., this flow of firearms and drugs relies on dangerous criminal enterprises that work in tandem with people-smuggling operations. An area with drug challenges is the Swanton sector, home to the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation. While the reservation has only a few thousand residents, it creates a big hole in security created by questions of tribal sovereignty over the area.

Whether at a tribal or national level, challenges to sovereignty worldwide are a running theme in the immigration discussion. Elites largely have abandoned even modest immigration restrictions, a view that’s been directly challenged this year by the Donald Trump candidacy (and election) in the U.S. and the Brexit vote in the UK.

That dynamic displayed in the U.S. and the UK is yet to be so boldly challenged in Canada. Guzzardi said, “There was a sense of resignation from two RCMP officers we spoke to in Quebec when they explained that most of the illegal crossers they detain get asylum.” To be determined is if Canada will see its own version of Brexit or a Trump.


BREATHING CALIFORNIA'S AIR CAN KILL YOU

With all of California’s claims to fame, it has one residents would prefer not to own. The state has the “deadliest air in the country,” as reported by the CBS Evening News. In fact, California’s air quality was so poor that, for this summer through early August, there were only three days that met federal health standards for ozone levels.

This comes from a study by the American Thoracic Society, a group of health-care professionals working to understand pulmonary diseases, that found air pollution kills 1,300 people annually in California.

This is more than triple the amount in New York and double the number in Texas. And, the researchers believe these numbers are
conservative.

The study was based on air pollution data for both fine particle and ozone levels in U.S. metropolitan areas recorded from 2011 to 2013, and the number of deaths and illnesses were estimated through analysis that factored in epidemiological studies linking various health effects to air pollution exposure.

Little to no precipitation due to the state’s extended drought, the “new normal” of wildfires seemingly always burning somewhere in the state fouling the air and pollution from at least 34 million vehicles on California roads all worsen air quality – and the state’s 38 million residents get to ingest all those nasty particulates in the air.

While the study’s main author advocated for stricter air quality standards, those will just become more and more difficult to attain as California continues growing, with busier ports, more people (an estimated 52 million by 2060, according to the California Department of Finance), more vehicles and more construction for roads, housing and commercial activities.

To learn more about air quality in your area, go to HealthoftheAir.org.


CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

Opposition to illegal immigration and loss of American jobs propelled Donald Trump through the primaries and remained a signature issue throughout the campaign. These issues were on the minds of voters as they proved the pundits and pollsters wrong in their election forecasts. Both of these issues are directly related to the CAPS mission to stabilize U.S. population and preserve a high quality of life for all Americans.

Voters want immigration reduction

Pre-election polling of 1,000 likely voters by Pulse Opinion Research for the Center for Immigration Studies shows that voters are with us on immigration. A majority of Americans (54 percent) believe there has been insufficient effort to enforce our immigration laws, while only 12 percent think there has been “too much effort.” Fifty one percent of Latinos believe we need greater efforts to enforce the laws.

Moreover, 54 percent of those surveyed think legal immigration should be capped at 500,000 a year or fewer, half the current level. Just 22 percent want an annual immigration level of 1 million or more. The Pew Research Center projects that unless current demographic trends change, future immigrants and their descendants will account for 88 percent of U.S. population growth between 2015 and 2065, increasing the U.S. population by more than 100 million people.

Challenges ahead

Trump’s critics attacked his plan to build “the Wall” (ignoring that then-Senators Clinton and Obama had voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006). But border security is important, and physical infrastructure is part of the solution, just as biometric entry/exit tracking is for those who enter the U.S. legally, but overstay their visas.

E-Verify may be even more important to deterring illegal immigration. If Trump can push Congress to pass mandatory E-Verify, that will be a major step. Concern for American workers was the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign, but how that translates into immigration policy is less clear. Is Trump committed to issuing fewer green cards? Will he reform and reduce the much-abused H-1B and H-2B visa programs?

Trade policy and automation also are important factors in the loss of American jobs, but one thing is clear: mass immigration of foreign workers contributes to growing income inequality in the United States. While immigration increases the size of the total economy (GDP), that increase occurs mainly at the expense of workers in the lower income brackets (blue-collar workers), where wages get depressed, to the benefit of white-collar workers and other owners of capital. In short, under current U.S. policies, immigration is a wealth transfer system from those at the bottom to those at the top.

Next steps

While a President who believes in enforcing our immigration laws can make a huge difference, a few words of caution are in order. First, Trump’s proposals were sometimes inconsistent and often without specifics. Second, while he will have Republican majorities in the House and Senate, many Republicans and most Democrats are not friends of sensible immigration reform, as evidenced by George W. Bush, supporters of the Gang of Eight amnesty bill and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

CAPS plans to hit the ground running with the new Congress and new Administration. Where Trump has made specific promises, we will keep up the pressure for him to honor his word. And we will work with our friends to pass mandatory E-Verify, reduce chain migration, eliminate the diversity visa lottery, overturn unconstitutional executive orders and push to end birthright citizenship.

Our agenda also includes working to end sanctuary cities, save jobs for Americans and, in general, regain control of a broken immigration system that has served the elites, not the interests of America and Americans. We hope that we can count on your continued support in the pivotal months ahead.

Dick Schneider
CAPS Board Chair

CAPS is scrupulously nonpartisan and does not support or oppose candidates, but we are committed to an immigration policy that serves America’s national interest and reduces the flood of immigration that increases our population, magnifies our environmental impacts, strains our infrastructure and displaces American workers.

ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF U.S. IMMIGRATION LEVELS
By Leon Kolankiewicz

The United States population is much larger today – by perhaps as much as 50 million – than it would have been had not U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy persuaded Congress and President Lyndon Johnson to support comprehensive immigration reform in 1965, opening the floodgates to modern mass immigration.

The legislation’s supporters insisted that increasing the volume or amount of immigration, as opposed to its diversity, was not their aim. But in a massive and unfortunate illustration of the law of unintended consequences, increase the volume did, and today about four times as many immigrants settle in the U.S. annually as they did prior to Kennedy’s exertions.

As a result of the flood of immigration that the 1965 legislation began to unleash half a century ago, and the chain migration en masse it set into motion, America unwittingly opted for a dramatically different and much higher demographic trajectory, one that replaced eventual population stabilization as a result of declining family sizes with rapid population growth without end. We are now at 325 million, headed for 400 million and more by mid-century, and more than 500 million by 2100. If the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act) had never passed and been signed into law by Johnson, the U.S. population likely would not have topped even 300 million.

This perpetual population growth has significant environmental effects, for the simple reason that every single American consumer – native-born and immigrant alike – uses a vast amount of natural resources. Think food, fiber, minerals, energy and water, all of which generates waste byproducts, ranging from sewage and solid waste to carbon dioxide, mercury and mine tailings. In general, more humans = more environmental impact.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law on January 1, 1970, has been called America’s environmental “Magna Carta.” NEPA acknowledges the direct link between population size and environmental degradation. Title I of NEPA, the “Declaration of National Environmental Policy,” begins: “The Congress, recognizing the profound impact of man’s activity on the interrelations of all components of the environment, particularly the profound influences of population growth…” [emphasis added].

NEPA requires federal agencies to analyze and publicly disclose the potential environmental impacts of their actions. Yet curiously, in spite of its own recognition that population growth in and of itself has environmental impacts, NEPA has never been applied to federal actions increasing immigration rates that have vastly engorged America’s population.

In view of this glaring omission, the Washington, D.C.-based ally of CAPS, PFIR (Progressives for Immigration Reform), prepared its own NEPA-inspired Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the long-term and cumulative environmental consequences of immigration policy. PFIR posted a Draft EIS in 2015 and a Final EIS in 2016.

The EIS assesses six types of potential long-term environmental impacts associated with three alternative immigration scenarios:

1. No Action Alternative,
in which current immigration rates of approximately 1.25 million per year would be maintained to the year 2100

2. Expansion Alternative,
or 2.25 million annual immigration

3. Reduction Alternative, or 0.25 million (250,000) annual immigration.

This range of reasonable alternatives corresponds to approximate actual immigration rates at present (the No Action Alternative), as well as proposals and legislation for either increasing or decreasing immigration rates. The three alternatives each vary by 1 million immigrants annually.

Under the No Action Alternative (1.25 million annual immigration into the U.S.), the country would see a population of 524 million in 2100, an increase of 215 million (70 percent) over the 2010 population of 309 million (see table).

Under the Expansion Alternative (2.25 million annual immigration), the U.S. would see a population of 669 million in 2100, an increase of 360 million (117 percent) above the 2010 population of 309 million.

U.S. population under the Reduction Alternative (250,000 annual immigration) would lead to a population of 379 million in 2100, an increase of 70 million (23 percent) above the 2010 population of 309 million.

Potential environmental impacts for each of the three immigration alternatives were assessed in six pertinent topic areas: 1) urban sprawl and loss of farmland, 2) habitat loss and impacts on biodiversity, 3) water demands and withdrawals from natural systems, 4) carbon dioxide emissions and resultant climate change, 5) energy demands and national security implications and 6) international ecological impacts of U.S. immigration policies.

The graph above illustrates the dramatically different impacts of the three immigration alternatives on just one environmental variable: additional urban sprawl. The Expansion Alternative, with expanded immigration and a huge population increase, would entail the development of more than 120 million additional acres of rural and farmlands, wildlife habitat and open space.

In general, the No Action Alternative (1.25 million annual immigration) and the Expansion Alternative (2.25 million annual immigration) would cause significant, long-term, widespread adverse environmental impacts on all resource topics analyzed. The Expansion Alternative in particular would result in major, highly adverse environmental impacts on a number of resources, even taking enhanced conservation and efficiency measures into account. The Reduction Alternative would still lead to higher environmental impacts than at present – because the population would still grow by 70 million – but much less than the other two alternatives.

NEPA and the EIS were intended as tools to enhance informed decision-making on federal actions that may trigger environmental impacts. Applying NEPA to federal actions concerning immigration levels clearly and unequivocally reveals that higher immigration levels leading to greater population growth result in more severe environmental impacts.

However, NEPA alone does not dictate any particular outcome or force agencies to select the “environmentally preferable alternative.” Ultimately, what course of action to choose is up to politicians and policymakers, as well as to the informed, concerned public letting their leaders know what matters to them.


Leon Kolankiewicz
CAPS Advisory Board Member,
Senior Writing Fellow

 


CALIFORNIA DROUGHT CONTINUES TO DEAL DEATH TO STATE'S UNIQUE, RICH BIODIVERSITY

California has been in drought conditions of extreme proportions since 2012 – a new “normal.” As the year comes to a close, 43 percent of the state continues to experience extreme-to-exceptional drought conditions on the heels of record-low 2015 snowpack. To meet water needs, groundwater continued to be pumped aggressively, stressing that resource. Voluntary and mandatory water reductions, reduced water deliveries to agricultural users and negative impacts on fisheries were some of the ongoing results of the drought.

Another year of drought also brought more than 7,200 wildfires, which burned some 560,000 acres throughout the state, areas which provide important ecosystem services from providing wildlife habitat and sequestering atmospheric carbon to building healthy watersheds. Longer, hotter and more dangerous fire seasons have become the norm, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The five-year drought has taken a horrible toll on the state’s trees from fire and more, with a loss in excess of 100 million trees on 7.7 million acres since 2010. Millions more weakened trees are expected to die in the months and years ahead.

Concern runs high for California’s iconic trees – the coast redwood and the giant sequoia. The latter can grow to nearly 300 feet, with a trunk 30 feet wide. The last remaining ones of their kind anywhere are in 75 groves throughout an area of the western Sierra Nevada, just 15 miles wide and 250 miles long. Unfortunately, even these long-living (thousands of years) giants are exhibiting drought stress. Other trees feeling the pain are the sugar pine, a species that can live 500 years, but is now experiencing high mortality. Cedar, fir and oak trees all are being hit by the drought too. “It’s not just the lack of precipitation that’s killing these trees; it’s the cascading effect of climate change,” according to reporting by Thayer Walker for bioGraphic.

The overall situation in California may grow worse in the years ahead. A 2016 Cornell University study found that the risk of megadrought, a long-term duration drought, in the Southwestern United States may increase to 99 percent by the end of this century if temperature rise persists. Relentless population growth in California will not help a severely stressed environment either. By 2060, the population for the state is projected to reach nearly 52 million, up from today’s 39 million. By 2100, with so many stressors, it’s difficult to project population, but hard to envision it reaching 90 million people, a number some have indicated as a possibility.

For more on the drought impacts on California’s sequoia trees, read “Last Tree Standing” at biographic.com.


FEET TO THE FIRE EVENT

CAPS National Media Director Joe Guzzardi participated in the annual Feet to the Fire event sponsored by FAIR, a national organization focused on immigration reform. The event brings together talk show hosts from across the country to interview those working on immigration issues and those impacted by mass immigration.

Guzzardi was joined on “radio row” by U.S. Senators Jeff Sessions and David Vitter, as well as U.S. Representatives Lou Barletta, Steve King and Lamar Smith, and sheriffs, border patrol officials and ranchers. In total, Guzzardi gave 22 interviews in two days for broadcasts in the major media markets of New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Boston and Portland, along with several other cities.

Interviews are available as podcasts on the radio station websites.


Frank Morris, Sr., Ph.D. Joins CAPS Advisory Board

CAPS is pleased to welcome Dr. Frank Morris to the CAPS Advisory Board.

Dr. Morris is the former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and former Dean of Graduate Studies at Morgan State University. He was previously a Senior Foreign Service Officer for the Agency for International Development in the U.S. State Department, Chief of Planning and Policy Analysis for the federal War on Poverty agency and Special Assistant to the Director of the National Institute for Education while serving as a National Educational Policy Fellow.

Morris received a B.A. from Colgate, a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


CAPS CAMPAIGN CONTINUES TO DRAW AWARENESS OF SANCTUARY CITY PROBLEMS


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