Immigration-Fueled U.S. Population Growth Comes at a Cost

Although news reports enthused that Florida will gain two congressional seats due to population gains over the past decade, the U.S. Census carried more sobering side effects.

Thanks to immigration, which accounted for three-quarters of the nation's population increase, the 27.3 million additional U.S. residents was exceeded by only two other decades in American history.

Going forward, the United States is on track to add 130 million more people in just the next 40 years -- nearly doubling the current population.

"Without a change in immigration policy, the nation is projected to add roughly 30 million new residents each decade for the foreseeable future," said the Center for Immigration Studies.

The Washington, D.C.-based research organization that advocates for strict immigration controls and border enforcement, projects that the ongoing influx of immigrants (legal and illegal) will mean:

• Building and paying for 8,000 new schools every 10 years.
• Developing land to accommodate 11.5 million new housing units every 10 years.
• Constructing enough roads to handle 23.6 million more vehicles every 10 years.

"While our country obviously can 'fit' more people, and technology and planning can help manage the situation, forcing such high population growth through immigration policy has profound implications for the environment, traffic, congestion, sprawl, water quality and the loss of open spaces," concluded CIS researcher Steven Camarota.