Category: Joe Guzzardi

Great Salt Lake Going Dry Due To Population Growth

By Joe Guzzardi

Utah’s Great Salt Lake may disappear within the next five years, experts predict. A Brigham Young University report found that as of January 2023, the lake is 19 feet below its average level. Since 1850, the Great Salt Lake has lost 73 percent of its water and more than half of its surface area.

BYU ecologist Benjamin Abbott, noting “unprecedented danger,” called for emergency measures to save the Great Salt Lake from further collapse. Abbott wrote that despite encouraging growth in legislative action and public awareness, “most Utahns do not realize the urgency of this crisis.”

At this point, and since 2020, the lake has lost more than 1 million acre-feet of water annually. Each acre foot represents about 360 gallons of water, nearly the size of a one-foot-deep football field. Today, only about 0.1 million acre-feet of water is returned to the lake each year.

Abbott pointed to worldwide examples which show that saline lake loss triggers a long-term cycle of environmental, health and economic suffering. He urges a coordinated rescue to stave off widespread air and water pollution, further losses from animals listed as part of the Endangered Species Act, and greater declines in agriculture, industry and overall quality of life.

If Utah Governor Spencer Cox hopes to deliver on his promise that the Great Salt Lake will not go dry on his watch, he’ll have to adopt some if not all of Abbott’s suggested measures, many of which will be unpopular among constituents. Specifically, the BYU scholars called on Cox to implement a watershed-wide emergency rescue plan that will set a requirement of at least 2.5 million acre-feet per year until the lake reaches its minimum healthy elevation of 4,198 feet. In conclusion, and in light of what the authors called an “all-hands-on-deck emergency,” the BYU analysis asked farmers, counties, cities, businesses, churches, universities and other organizations to “do everything in their power to reduce outdoor water use.” Utahns must, BYU counseled, adopt a “Lake First” approach to water preservation.

The Great Salt Lake’s rapidly dwindling water level is attributable to two factors: the ongoing drought that’s affected large swathes of the nation and an unprecedented population boom. Despite above average snowfall in 2022, most of Utah remains in severe to extreme drought mode.

The bigger culprit in the Great Salt Lake’s demise, however, is population growth. Between July 2021 and July 2022, Utah’s estimated population grew by more than 61,000, which marked the state’s largest spike in absolute growth since 2006, putting its total population at slightly more than 3.4 million residents. Of Utah’s 29 counties, 28 added population, except for Daggett, which declined by six people. Utah’s population growth is calculated by the standard formula: net migration accounted for an estimated 38,141 more residents, while natural increase — births minus deaths — accounted for another 23,101 residents. From 2010 to 2020, Utah was the nation’s fastest growing state. Utah’s growth will continue unabated. By 2060, Utah’s population will hit 5.5 million with intervals of 4 million between 2032 and 2033 and 5 million between 2050 and 2051.

Put another way, in the next 40 years, Utah’s population will increase 66 percent.

By the time the 2030 Census rolls around, Utah will have more Venezuelan migrants admitted under President Biden’s immigration policies. Already in Utah in significant numbers, Venezuelans are part of Biden’s program to grant immigration parole every month to 30,000 total Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. For Venezuelans who have family ties and prospective sponsors in Utah, the state becomes a magnet. And once settled, the migrant Venezuelans will start families or expand their existing families, thereby putting more pressure on Utah’s natural resources.

The Great Salt Lake is one of many disappearing U.S. lakes and rivers, victimized by overpopulation and mismanagement. Others in grave danger of drying up include the Colorado and California’s Lake Mead and Lake Tahoe. BYU’s environmentalists have rolled out a sound plan to save the Great Salt Lake. For its part, the federal government is irresponsibly adding population to states like Utah that are struggling to provide precious water and other resources for existing residents.

Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts.

Great Salt Lake Going Dry Due To Population Growth

Clock Ticking on Mayorkas; House Files Impeachment Articles

By Joe Guzzardi

The 118th Congress had barely convened before the Senate’s amnesty addicts traveled to the border and began pontificating about the bipartisan immigration action they were about to embark upon. Whenever Congress touts bipartisanship as it relates to immigration, the sub rosa message is that amnesty legislation, which Americans have consistently rejected, is percolating.

Neither amnesty’s failed history – countless futile efforts since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act – nor the Republican-controlled House of Representatives stopped determined Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). Tillis tipped off the group’s hand when he said, “It’s not just about border security; it’s not just about a path to citizenship or some certainty for a population.” One of those populations would be the “Dreamers,” with a 20-year-long failed legislative record. Sinema took advantage of the border trip to promote her failed amnesty, her leftovers from the December Lame Duck session, a three-week period when radical immigration legislation usually finds a home. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) tweeted that “our immigration system is badly broken…” drivel that’s been repeated so often it’s lost whatever meaning it once may have had. The immigration system is “badly broken,” to quote Coons, because immigration laws have been ignored for decades. Critics laughingly call the out-of-touch, border-visiting senators the “Sell-Out Safari.”

Coons’ tweet is classic duplicity. Coons, Sinema, Kelly and Murphy have consistently voted against measures to enforce border security and against fortifying the interior by providing more agents and by giving more authority to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Republicans Tillis and Cornyn are also immigration expansionists. Tillis worked with Sinema on her unsuccessful Lame Duck amnesty. Cornyn sponsored, with Sinema and Tillis as cosponsors, the “Bipartisan Border Solutions” bill that would have built more processing centers to expedite migrants’ release and to create a “fairer and more efficient” way to decide asylum cases. The bill, which never got off the ground, would have rolled out the red carpet to more prospective migrants at a time when the border is under siege.

The good news is that the border safari, an updated version of the 2013 Gang of Eight that promoted but couldn’t deliver an amnesty was a cheap photo op that intended to reflect concern about the border crisis when, in fact, the senators’ voting records prove that the invasion doesn’t trouble them in the least.

More good news is that Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the new Speaker of the House, represents enforcement proponents’ best chance to move their agenda forward since 2007 when Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) first held the job. Republicans John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) followed Pelosi from 2011 to 2019 when Pelosi returned as Speaker. Although Boehner and Ryan are Republicans, their commitment to higher immigration levels was not much different than Pelosi’s. Boehner and Ryan received 0 percent scores on immigration, meaning that they favor looser immigration enforcement and more employment-based visas for foreign-born workers.

Also in McCarthy’s favor is the public support for tightening the border. Polls taken in September 2022 showed that a majority of Americans, including 76 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Independents, thought President Biden should be doing more to ensure border security. Moreover, a plurality of Americans opposes using tax dollars to transport migrants, a common practice in the Biden catch-and-release era.

McCarthy must become more proactive and make good on his November call for the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to resign or face impeachment. “He cannot and must not remain in that position,” McCarthy said. “If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.” McCarthy has the backing of the Chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Jim Jordan and James Comer.

On January 9, Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed articles of impeachment that charged Mayorkas with, among other offenses, “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Mayorkas insists he won’t resign and that he’s prepared for whatever investigations may come his way. Assuming the House presses on, and that the DHS secretary remains committed to keeping his post, Capitol Hill fireworks are assured, the fallout from which could lead to Mayorkas’ departure.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Clock Ticking on Mayorkas; House Files Impeachment Articles

Biden Restoring America The Beautiful Program Is Misguided

By Joe Guzzardi

A week after Joe Biden became president, he signed Executive 0rder 14008 (EO) that announced his commitment to protect 30 percent of U.S. land and water – 41.5 million acres per year – by 2030. Then, on May 6, 2021, the Department of the Interior published “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful,” a preliminary report about what’s become known as the “30 x 30” plan. Under the Department of Interior’s direction, in collaboration with the Agriculture and Commerce departments and consistent with Biden’s EO, the report reaffirmed the mission to conserve within the next seven years at least 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters. The order is tall, and time is short for the urgent undertaking.

As of 2023, the U.S. is going in the wrong direction if its intention is to preserve precious, irreplaceable natural resources. The growth and development mantra that the Chamber of Commerce, the media and most in Congress embrace have overwhelmed Americans who want to preserve what remains of the nation’s biodiversity.

The valiant battle against the powerful, wealthy, craven growth mongers is worth the fight. In the book, “Precious Heritage, the Status of Biodiversity in the U.S.,” the authors point out that the U.S. is, for species like salamanders and fresh water turtles, at the global center of ecological biodiversity. From Appalachia’s lush forests to Alaska’s frozen tundra, and from the Midwest’s tallgrass prairies to Hawaii’s subtropical rainforests, the U.S. harbors a stunning, unique ecosystem array. These ecosystems in turn sustain an incomparable variety of plant and animal life. Among the nation’s other extraordinary biological features are California’s coast redwoods, which are the world’s tallest trees, and Nevada’s Devils Hole pupfish, which survive in a single 10’ x 70’ desert pool, the smallest range of any vertebrate animal.

And yet, relentless growth continues. Between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. grew by about 20 million residents, the equivalent of Los Angeles x5. Today L.A. has 3.9 million people, and a density of 8,382 persons per square mile.

Since Biden’s EO, there have been few, if any, identifiable successes. A recently released Department of Interior preliminary report is best viewed as a guideline or a starting point two years into the venture. Details are few. Rather, the report repeats themes that have been bandied about for decades: “Pursue a collaborative and inclusive approach to conservation” and “conserve America’s lands and waters for the benefit of all people.” No one argues with those objectives or the six other so-called “central recommendations.” But the progress report lacks the specifics of how to accomplish the lofty goals and ignores the harsh reality that, on its current course, U.S. population will continue ever upward.

As encouraging as the White House’s awareness and conservation activism is, Biden’s EO makes not a single mention of immigration, the nation’s main population driver. And while discussions about immigration may be uncomfortable or even off the table for expansionists, no serious approach to conservation can exclude the controversial topic.

More than 1 million legal immigrants arrive annually, many beginning new families or expanding their existing families. Many eventually petition their relatives, the family reunification process that adds significantly to U.S. population growth. By 2030, the U.S. population is expected to reach about 350 million, up from today’s 334 million. By 2060, the Census Bureau predicts that population will hover around 400 million, more than 15 million more per decade, and a 20 percent spike from 2023. These figures were calculated pre-Southwest Border surge.

The obvious consequence is more development. More roads, hospitals, schools, stores and places of worship must be built.  With that, green spaces and open spaces are destroyed to make room for the inevitable sprawl that building creates. The establishment wants more immigration because more new residents mean more consumers. Despite elitists demands, at a minimum immigration must be slowed. Reduced immigration levels – fewer people – would help the White House Council on Environmental Quality move toward its conservation goal. Ignore immigration as a variable in population growth, and sprawl and environmental degradation will continue unabated.

In 2001, Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day founder, called out faux environmentalists. Under that would fit today’s Biden administration’s interior, ag and commerce departments’ officials. Nelson spoke words as true today as they were two decades ago: “…it’s phony to say ‘I’m for the environment but not for limiting immigration.’”

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Mid-Term Voters Preferred Status Quo; Bad News for Change Advocates

By Joe Guzzardi

Voters are, to understate their mood, disenchanted with Congress. Yet paradoxically, voters re-elect, over and over, the same representatives they hold in dismally low esteem, consider ineffectual and out-of-touch.

On average for 2022, about 80 percent of polling respondents disapproved of how congressional representatives handled their jobs. Many critics had previously claimed that underrepresentation of women and diverse legislators was a key reason that Congress was so incompetent. But the 117th Congress was the most racially and gender diverse in history. In 2022, 142 women were in the U.S. House of Representatives, a record high. Despite these House gains, voters maintained their same opinion of Congress – a bungling, self-important body that does little right.

In November, when the moment-of-truth mid-term election was held, 73 percent of voters disapproved of incumbents’ job performance. But the vote count told a different tale. Despite their 73 percent disapproval rate, congressional incumbents had a 98 percent win rate. Forty-one states had a 100 percent win rate in congressional races. The takeaway: talk is cheap, but the votes tell the true story. Overwhelmingly, the majority wants to maintain the status quo.

The status quo translates into continuing high inflation which in 2022 averaged 8.4 percent per month. Status quo also means national debt mounting from its current $31 trillion and funding the Ukraine war which, with Biden’s signature on a $1.9 trillion omnibus spending bill, will put the U.S. investment in the faraway conflict at $100 billion.

As entrenched as those costs are, Biden’s open border is another unsustainable drain on taxpayers’ pocketbooks. To provide public education, Medicaid and other affirmative benefits to the 1.35 million illegal immigrants that have become part of the general population since Biden took office will cost taxpayers $100 billion over the aliens’ lifetimes. Many recent arrivals have limited education and English language skills, so jobs they may end up accepting likely will pay little.

Regardless of which candidate voters supported in the 2020 presidential election, only a tiny percentage would have cast their ballots in favor of adopting the current border policy. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported that it had released 430,677 aliens into the interior, witnessed 240,340 migrants the agency calls “gotaways” and expelled 186,340 illegal immigrants. Agents caution that their official numbers may be low because many more aliens may have escaped without CBP’s knowledge. Nine out of 10 agents, a whistleblower reported, are away from the line.

The southwest border chaos also represents a dangerous criminal threat to innocent citizens. Too many migrants have either criminal or terrorist histories. Retiring Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told his agents that known or suspected terrorists, as identified in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, are entering in huge numbers, representing “a real threat.”

CBP, which operates at ports of entry and along the border between entry ports, reportedthat during fiscal year 2022, they encountered more than 25,000 convicted criminals. When the numbers that pour across the border total millions, ill-intended people will be among them.

The argument against the border “management” of Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas shouldn’t be construed as anti-immigrant. Rather, the disagreement reflects reasonable questioning about the wisdom of open borders and a sincere concern that citizens are funding the administration’s immigration follies that only it approves of.

The border crisis is a direct result of the Biden’s administration’s willingness to allow anyone from anywhere to enter the U.S., even though the electorate is strongly opposed to such recklessness. The nation wants a responsible, sensible immigration policy, a prudent but, to date, elusive goal.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Mid-Term Voters Preferred Status Quo

Citizenship No Longer Important For Immigrants Under Biden

By Joe Guzzardi

Every year at Natale, my family gathered at my Sicilian-born grandmother’s home for the annual feast that she spent days preparing. The courses included the traditional Sciabbó, a lasagna made with pork ragú seasoned with dark chocolate, and cannoli alla Siciliana. One year, Nona told us that although she still wanted everyone to visit her at Christmas, she had grown too old to continue her cooking tradition. After feasting, we gathered around, and I asked Nona to tell me about the highlights of her Italian and American lives. Without hesitation, Nona answered that her happiest four moments were the three days that each of her children was born, and the day she became a United States citizen.

In today’s U.S., citizenship’s importance is quickly slipping away. Over the decades, the citizenship test has been watered down to the most basic questions with three of the four answers obviously incorrect. Example: “What is the one promise you make when you become a U.S. citizen?” A) Never travel outside the U.S., B) Disobey U.S. laws, C) Give up loyalty to other countries and D) Don’t defend the Constitution and U.S. laws.

Time was that the citizenship test required a reasonable knowledge of U.S. history and civics. Questions about the Federalist Papers and the amendments to the Constitution were standard. No more. In fact, the Biden administration has put the very concept of citizenship under siege. Just three months after his inauguration, Biden ordered federal agencies to drop “assimilation,” and use “integration.”

Assimilation, the process of absorbing new facts and of responding to new situations to conform with the new norm, has long been most immigrants’ goal. Banning the word from the lexicon makes little sense. For new immigrants, assimilation, mastering English and obtaining citizenship are essential for a fulfilling life. Without assimilation, conversational English skills and citizenship, most immigrants will be doomed to low-paying jobs, and will never experience the personal and professional joys that they ostensibly came to America to achieve.

Compare the early 20th century to today. In a long-ago interview with a Hollywood-based journalist, Austrian-born Billy Wilder said that shortly after he arrived in the U.S. in 1933 at age 27, he stayed in his hotel room, listening to the radio to learn English. While his fellow ex-pats met at coffee shops to drink espresso, eat pastries, speak German and reminisce about the old days, Wilder was determined to assimilate. Wilder said he knew he would never return to Europe and was determined to live out his life as an American. After earning multiple Academy Award nominations and winning six Oscars, Wilder died in Beverly Hills at age 95.

Biden must encourage, not discourage, assimilation. With the U.S.’s legal and illegal immigrant population in November 2022 at a record number, nearly 48 million, assimilation is critical. More than 70 ethnic identity congressional caucuses, each lobbying for their individual objectives, underline the need for the U.S. to unify, and to progress harmoniously toward shared ideals. That road, as Robert Frost might have written, is not being traveled.

The president’s failure to enforce immigration laws at the Southwest Border – a curious position for the man who as a U.S. senator voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006 to build a wall to separate Mexico from the U.S. – will lead to a further dilution between the distinction of citizen and noncitizen. Since Biden took office, nearly 5.5 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S., including nearly 1 million got-aways, as immigration officials refer to them, from about 150 different nations; they care little about citizenship. Migrants’ goal is amnesty, affirmative benefits and, most especially, the employment authorization that’s part of the amnesty package that rewards illegal crossers.

Woke, powerful elected officials are working hard and successfully to eliminate distinctions between legal and unlawful residents. On January 9, New York became the largest municipality to offer voting rights to noncitizens when newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams approved a local act allowing participation in New York City elections. About 800,000 visa holders, deferred action recipients and lawful permanent residents – noncitizens all – will be allowed to register as municipal voters, assuming they have lived in New York for 30 days.

The Republican legislature filed a lawsuit against the act on the grounds that it breaks New York State’s Constitution. Among its other violations, Intro. 1867 bypasses naturalization’s five-year residency requirement and mandatory English and civics tests without substituting a way to acclimate new voters. The city and state impose 30-day registration requirements for U.S. citizens; noncitizens are unlikely to be able to make informed election decisions after living in the city for a mere month. Moreover, opponents argue that granting voting rights to noncitizens disenfranchises citizens’ ballots, makes a mockery of citizenship and discourages immigrants from naturalizing.

Biden, Adams and others are wrong-headedly pursuing policies guaranteed to further split and weaken America. For the woke, the time is overdue to reacquaint themselves with the wonderful, if unofficial, U.S. motto, “E pluribus unum,” from the many one.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Citizenship No Longer Important For Immigrants Under Biden

Labor Force Participation Rate Falling, Bigger Drop Coming

By Joe Guzzardi

Dramatic footage taken recently that showed thousands of migrants crossing the Rio Grande River, and walking into El Paso represents compelling evidence that the Biden administration’s immigration policy is out of control. A massive Border Patrol facility in El Paso erected to ensure immigrants were not detained outside in the elements has blown past its four-digit capacity. Hundreds of people were left to endure near-freezing temperatures, and to sleep on the street with small campfires their only warmth. Since December 12, El Paso border patrol agents have interdicted more than 10,000 aliens, as per data city officials shared. 

But the videos tell only a portion of the current immigration muddle. The other part of federal immigration policy plays out behind the scene in the abyss of obscure immigration legislation that gets little media play even though all Americans, especially workers, are directly affected. 

In early December, mostly unnoticed, President Biden and his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to about 337,000 aliens from Haiti, Nepal, Sudan, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Originally slated to leave the U.S. on December 31, TPS holders got a re-up from DHS. The agency prolonged their residency period and their work permits until June 20, 2024, a benefit that allows them to compete with Americans in the U.S. labor force. In July, Biden extended TPSfor Syrians just as he had done previously for Cameroonians and Venezuelans before that. Again, more work permits all around—granted by executive decree. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services lists 16 nations that have been granted TPS including some countries hostile to the U. S.— Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

From the macro perspective —the physical immigration component at the open border, and the administrative giveaways from Capitol Hill— working-age migrants are crossing undeterred, and the TPS community is rewarded with employment permission. By the time Biden’s first term ends, millions of foreign nationals will have work permits. Only the smallest fraction of the illegal immigrants “temporarily” protected or the illegal border crossers, many of whom will eventually receive asylum or parole, will return home. Instead, they’ll become a permanent part of the U.S. labor force. Those who don’t received federally authorized employment permits may work in the underground economy, ordered by Mayorkas as off-limits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that might otherwise begin removal actions.

Rushing to provide work permission on a large scale to the newly U.S. settled worldwide immigrant population is terrible timing, and will have severe long-term labor implications. In addition to the estimated 6.5 million illegal immigrants who will have entered the U.S. during Biden’s four years in the White House, the administration has increased TPS recipients by 500,000. 

With the U.S. labor market struggling, adding thousands of work authorized immigrants will make employment conditions tougher for Americans. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in November the economy created 263,000 jobs, the media was euphoric. But, buried in the news was the telling fact that the labor force participation rate had dropped to 62.1 percent from 63.4 percent nine months ago. The share of people working remains below pandemic levels.

An October Wall Street Journal story reported that 4.5 million Americans are working two jobs to keep apace with inflation. A Prudential Financial Inc. survey that the Journal also published found that 81% of Gen-Z and 77% of millennial workers said they have pursued gig work or are considering extra side work this year “to supplement their income…”

A dramatic influx of work authorized legal and illegal immigrants will exacerbate the problem that 100 million Americans are classified as “not in the labor force.” Moreover, one in six prime working age men, 25-54, has no paid work at all, a condition that economist Nicholas Eberstadt calls the rise of the “non-working class,” and its associated despair, “America’s invisible crisis.”

Biden’s multi-layered assault on U.S. workers—his welcome the world open borders that will include employment authorization and his administratively granted work permission for TPS designees demonstrates his callous disregard for American workers and their families.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Labor Force Participation Rate Falling, Bigger Drop Coming

Southwest Border Is An Environmental Crisis

By Joe Guzzardi

Ask the millions of migrants who have either entered the United States or are lined up at the border what motivated their journeys, and all will answer that they’re in pursuit of the proverbial better life. Translated, a better life means they’re longing to become consumers—consumers of housing, hard goods like cars, and natural resources such as water, electricity and natural gas. The migrants’ goal is great news for big businesses that never met a consumer they don’t love, but bad news for environmentalists who hope to preserve a vanishing America. As conservationists look ahead, the future they see is unsettling.

With Title 42 set to expire on December 21st, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, (R-TX) whose district includes 42 percent of the Texas-Mexico border predicts a “hurricane” of illegal immigration. Everyone in his district, Gonzales said, is in “batten down the hatches” mode as they await a historic and unmanageable increase in migration—more eventual consumers. Border patrol agents advised Uvalde residents to expect about 150 daily migrant drop offs indefinitely, evidence which, Gonzales said, proves that the Biden administration has no meaningful plan to cope with the ongoing invasion. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Title 42 has been enforced since March 2020 to expel migrants at the southern border. But, in November, in his 49-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, President Bill Clinton’s appointee, ruled that Title 42 is “arbitrary and capricious,” and violated federal regulatory law.

For FY 2022, an estimated 5.5 million aliens, a total that includes the 4.4 million that CBP reported, and 1.1 million gotaways, are in the U.S. interior. Princeton Policy Advisors’ analyst Steven Kopits, who correctly predicted the FY 2022 crisis, wrote that “… based on the last two months [October and November], 2023 should set yet another record for illegal border crossing — and by a substantial margin over 2022.” March, April and May 2023 will be, Koptis concluded, especially high as part of the illegal immigrant siege. Only if Republicans captured both congressional chambers, Kopits envisioned, could the migrant invasion be halted—wishful thinking as the mid-term results were tallied.

The red tsunami that Kopits saw as the vehicle that might level off illegal immigration turned out to be a mere trickle. The House will have a narrow margin, and the Senate remains under Democratic control. All 50 senators have, since 2020, an unbroken voting record that supports open borders. Many of those senators are captives of the corporate donor class that wants the steady stream of consumers to continue unabated.

Environmentalists should be front and center in the battle to preserve the nation’s green space and irreplaceable resources. But not only have congressional Democrats abandoned limiting immigration to sustainable levels, but environmentalists have also given up the battle. Although population surges destroy the ecosystems, wildlife habitat, and farmland that exists between their cities and towns, no large environmental group today advocates for saving natural habitat from relentless growth. The Census Bureau projects that by mid-century, immigrants and births to immigrants will drive more than 85% of U.S. population growth, and add more than 100 million people to its current 333 million population.

American has one of the world’s largest ecological per capita footprints, 8.04.  Any and all U.S population growth— let alone the massive multi-million-person border surge–will grow its existing footprint. The average U.S. citizen’s ecological footprint is about 50 percent larger than that of the average person in most European countries. The nation has more suburban sprawl and less public transportation than most countries, which means it burns more fossil fuels that adds to its per-capita carbon consumption, and uses more energy and water per person than most other developed countries.

No one in the Biden administration or in Congress or among the major environmental organizations has meaningfully addressed the open border’s long-term consequences even though they are potentially dire. E.O. Wilson, biologist and writer, expressed the ecological threat dramatically, but accurately: “The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical concept.”

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Southwest Border Is An Environmental Crisis

Umpire Augie Donatelli Learned Trade In POW Camp

By Joe Guzzardi

During World War II, 130,000 American soldiers and nearly 19,000 U.S. civilians were prisoners of war. In all but the worst circumstances, usually the Japanese camps where POWs lived in brutally inhumane conditions, a little recreation was possible, and baseball was the preferred pastime.

In his book, “POW Baseball in World War II,” author Tom Wolter tells the stories of baseball played behind barbed wire in the most unlikely places that included Central Asia, along the Baltic Seacoast, in Indonesian jungles and in Japanese cities where guards challenged prisoners to games. Refusal would have been dangerous.

Games were played, said one POW, to avoid crushing boredom, and to create a “Little America.” Within the camps, the players formed leagues, and rivalries were intense. Umpiring disputes were heated, and ringer roster-stacking allegations common. Prison-run newspapers detailed the games in prose that would have made Damon Runyon proud.

Among those liberated from POW camps was Army Air Force Sergeant Augie Donatelli, a future National League umpire. Stationed in England with the 379th Bomb Group as a tail-gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, one of the Air Force’s most dangerous jobs, Donatelli’s plane, during the first daylight mission over Berlin, was shot down. Looking back, Donatelli said that “fighters [were] diving at us, 20-millimeter shells exploding all around. We flew into the clouds to hide. What action! That day 68 bombers were shot down.”

Donatelli, who previously had flown 17 successful missions, parachuted out but broke his ankle when he hit the ground. Trying to escape from the forest after his fall, Donatelli recalled that he heard a Nazi soldier yell, “Halt,” and was soon a Stalag Luft IV POW.

During his 14 months as a POW, Donatelli tried to escape twice, but was recaptured. Former National League umpire and friend Doug Harvey later recalled, “He always laughed when he talked about his second attempt. He was hiding in a haystack, but didn’t get all the way in. His rear was showing. One of the German guards got him out with a pitchfork.”

As a young boy, Donatelli, the son of Italian immigrants, worked in Western Pennsylvania’s coal mines. Donatelli told the Society for American Baseball’s Oral History Committee, “It was dangerous and hard work, but what else were you going to do? I started even before graduating from high school.” But Donatelli began his 24-year career, which ended with him universally regarded as one of baseball history’s best umpires, when he presided over POW softball games.

Before Donatelli enlisted, something he said that his patriotic spirit compelled him to do, he had played shortstop in the Class D league for the St. Louis Browns. But Gus, as Donatelli’s friends called him, sensed that his skills weren’t up to MLB snuff. After graduating from umpire school, his new career began, and soon, he was umpiring in the big leagues where he became famous for his quick hook and the dramatic gestures that accompanied it.

By the time he retired, Donatelli had worked four All-Star games, five World Series, two League Championship Series. Donatelli was also behind the plate for four no-hitters, as well as when Whitey Ford set the World Series record for scoreless innings, 32, when Don Drysdale got the single season consecutive shutout innings in a season, 58, when Stan Musial hit five homers in a doubleheader, and when “The Man” got his 3,000th base hit, and when Nate Colbert hit five homers and had the most RBIs, 13, in a doubleheader.

In 1970, Donatelli helped organize the Major League Umpires Association which eventually led to today’s umpires earning an average $235,000 salary. When Donatelli looked back at his career, he pointed with pride to missing only one game in 24 years, and his patriotic World War II service; “I felt it was something I had to do, not to escape the mines but because you just felt it was up to you to get into it.” At age 75, Donatelli died at home in St. Petersburg, Fl.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Umpire Augie Donatelli Learned Trade In POW Camp

8 Billion People On Planet Earth

By Joe Guzzardi

The arrival of the planet’s 8 billionth human inhabitant, which the United Nationsexcitedly announced in mid-November, was greeted in some circles as a joyous event. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed 8 billion people as an occasion “to celebrate diversity and enhancements.”

For other population growth enthusiasts, 2037 can’t come fast enough. By then, only 17 years from today, the world population will hit 9 billion. The Washington Post’seditorial board wholeheartedly agrees with Guterres. In its op-ed piece, disdainfully, the Post encouraged readers not to fret because population growth is “mostly inevitable anyway.” The editorial overlooked, perhaps purposely, other harmful population growth consequences, including, but not limited to, drought and its inevitable water shortages, megafauna extinction and ground subsidence, as well as pollution in its multiple forms.

Suddenly, or so it seems, everyone is advocating for higher birth rates, and hence more people, but without mentioning the obvious negative effects on the already eroding ecosystem and depleted, irreplaceable natural resources. Elon Musk, father of nine, is sounding alarm bells about what he refers to as a crumbling civilization, inevitable without a population spike.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has joined the more people, the merrier crowd, and uses his advocacy as an excuse to defend the U.S.’s unprecedented and unlawful border invasion. Coinciding with the UN’s gleeful announcement that world population had hit 8 billion, Schumer urged his GOP congressional colleagues to join in the effort to “welcome” more immigration and to put existing illegal aliens, as well as, presumably, those pouring across the border every hour of every day, on a citizenship path. Schumer’s reasoning: the U.S. has “a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to.” Therefore, Schumer warned, without immigration, the nation’s economy is doomed.

The magnitude of Schumer’s distorted vision is stunning. The existing illegal immigrants’ exact population is unknown. It is such a mystery that Schumer himself refuses to take a stab at the total. In his plea for a citizenship path for aliens, Schumer referred to “all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here.” Eleven million is the conservative end of the range that, in some estimates, extends upward to 30 million.

A word or two about the border invasion’s totals that must be evaluated as part of Schumer’s grand citizenship plan. Eight weeks into fiscal 2023, which began October 1, a record number of illegals have crossed the border. The number of gotaways — those seen crossing illegally but not apprehended — are on an unprecedented pace during FY 2023 to date: 134,649 since October 1, per CBP sources. Overall migrant encounters also are on an unparalleled pace, FYTD23: 349,216 compared to 275,624 this time in FY22. Assuming those statistics continue indefinitely — and there’s no reason to expect otherwise — at least 2,496 illegals per day will get away, and border agents will encounter 6,467 aliens daily.

Given that more than 5.5 million aliens have entered since President Biden took office, the U.S. population will have increased by roughly 10 million when Election Day 2024 rolls around. Schumer has nothing to worry about; family reunification will be the impetus for the 10 million total to go ever-upward.

The worldwide migrant community has every incentive to keep coming. The administration gives free-to-them, but taxpayer-funded, airline tickets, train tickets, bus tickets, cell phones, welfare, public education and health care, purposely provided incentives that will help satisfy the seditious goal of Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to destroy sovereign America. For Musk, Schumer and other population growth deniers, Biden’s open borders are a dream come true.

Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts.

8 Billion People On Planet Earth