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AUHTM Coalition |
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No Bashing [The following statement represents AUHTM’s adaptation of statements by Roy Beck of NumbersUSA and by Joyce Tarnow of Floridians for a Sustainable Population on their respective websites. AUHTM subscribes to the principles below wholeheartedly.] AUHTM is advocating for a significant reduction in mass immigration to the U.S. and for strong action against the one government, Mexico's, most hostile to that reduction. As with most immigration reform groups, however, AUHTM's main concern is about the numbers of people coming into the U.S. and how they come in, not about who or where they come from. AUHTM does not advocate hostile actions or feelings toward immigrant Americans from any country. Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported. Unfortunately, to fight overimmigration is to risk seeming to attack immigrants themselves. Even worse is the risk of inadvertently encouraging somebody else to show hostility toward the foreign-born as a group. All of us know personally many wonderful immigrants of various nationalities.So we should have a very personal stake in not wanting to provoke hostility or discrimination toward the foreign-born who already are living among us. But our kindly feelings toward immigrants must no longer stifle public discussion about the effects of immigration numbers. To talk about changing immigration numbers is to say nothing against the individual immigrants in this country. Rather, it is about deciding how many foreign citizens living in their own countries right now should be allowed to immigrate in the future, and how many, if any, illegal aliens now here should be allowed to stay. None of this is to suggest that no immigrants are scoundrels or contribute to problems of immigration because of their bad personal behavior. It is not unfair, nor does it constitute immigrant bashing, to criticize the behavior of specific immigrants who violate our laws or otherwise behave in a manner unworthy of guests who have been invited into this country. Nor is it unfair to single out the Mexican government for its uniquely hostile and aggressive attitude towards the U.S., its borders, laws and sovereignty. It IS immigrant bashing, however, to ascribe negative characteristics to whole groups of people based on their ethnicity or foreign-born status. All of us should be careful of the language we use so as not to inadvertently appear to be making such negative generalizations. Not only is it ethically wrong to engage in such stereotyping, it is tactically short-sighted. Many, if not most, immigrants already among us would support reductions in immigration numbers. The reasons are not surprising. Virtually any reduction designed to help native-born Americans would be even more beneficial to foreign-born Americans. That is why so many immigrants are supporters of reduced immigration. (See polls at: http://www.flsuspop.org/pages/polls.htm). Perhaps the greatest "immigrant bashers" are those members of Congress who refuse to look at the abysmal conditions of so many immigrant Americans and who every year insist on adding more than a million more immigrants into their occupations, schools and communities. Groups, books, individuals and websites known for their opposition to current immigration numbers naturally are defined most easily by what they are AGAINST. But AUHTM, like most other immigration reform groups, is motivated not by our opposition to immigration but by our passion for some very dear values: We are FOR fulfillment of the environmental goals set forth in a national consensus in the early 1970s. As a nation, we agreed to stop squandering our natural resources and to restore and preserve the quality of our water, air, ecosystems and biodiversity for future generations. Until we can meet those goals with the present size of U.S. population, we believe it irresponsible for the federal government to force massive new population growth. We are FOR a decent standard of living for all full-time workers no matter how low-skilled. If some of us feel we require the services of that job, then we have no humane right to expect those services at a cost that requires the worker to live without dignity. With tens of millions of Americans unable to support a family at even lower-middle-class standards, we feel the federal government should NOT be importing foreign workers to compete with those most vulnerable of our fellow citizens and recent immigrants. We are FOR a continuation of the American style of generous individual liberties. We are FOR the philosophy of instituting as little regimentation and regulation in our lives as is necessary for the common good. We believe that an integral aspect of the American style of freedom is tied to the tradition of open spaces in this country and the freedom of movement. We believe the federal government irresponsibly threatens those freedoms by a program that would force more than 100 million additional people into our already-overcrowded highways, schools, parks, hunting and fishing areas, beaches, lakes and streams. We believe along with most Americans that endless urban sprawl continually deteriorates the quality of liberty in this country and that the federal government should not be in the business of forcing that sprawl. Quotable Notables on the Need for Lower Immigration Numbers http://www.numbersusa.com/about/goals.html http://www.numbersusa.com/interests/env_endorsements.html
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