January 18, 2012--NumbersUSA

"I think I just had a hallucination." It was about midnight and Rona was having trouble falling asleep, so she was watching TV with the sound turned down.

I stirred. "Sorry to wake you. I thought I was talking to myself."

"That's OK," I yawned, "What's going on?"

"I just saw a commercial--at least I think I did--for an anti-immigration organization."

"What's so unusual or hallucinatory about that? There are lots of these kinds of groups out there. Historically, whenever times are hard, nativist Americans want to close our borders."

"One thing that's not a hallucination is that even when I inadvertently wake you in the middle of the night you're not too tired to deliver a lecture about American history."

"Well, you brought up the subject and all I did was . . ."

"Sorry. I don't mean to get on your case. But that commercial was very disturbing. Maybe they'll show it again so you can see it."

"Maybe we just turn off the TV so we both can get some sleep. I'm sure you'll be able to find it on the Internet tomorrow morning. I mean," checking the clock, "later this morning."

We both did manage to get some shuteye and first thing after breakfast Rona found the ad she had seen. From a group called NumbersUSA.

What is unusual about them is that they are not just against illegal immigrants, but immigrants in general. All of them. Legal as well.

They claim not to be anti-immigrant just that they want to so dramatically reduce the number of legal immigrants as to be in effect anti-immigrant.

From their Website, here's what they see to be the problem--

The 1990s saw the biggest population boom in U.S. history. This is truly astounding news coming three decades after widespread agreement among Americans that the country was mature and probably already overpopulated. No wonder Americans became increasingly alarmed at their deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl, congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions on their individual liberty caused by the new population explosion!

And here's their version of the solution--

Contact your senators and representatives and urge them to vote for bills which would help stabilize the United States’s population numbers, and to vote against bills that would worsen the problem. Use NumbersUSA.com to send e-faxes to your congressmen for free, to stay informed on all the latest immigration bills in congress, and to find the latest news on the effort to reduce immigration numbers to a traditional level.

My research about NumbersUSA suggests that their view as to what constitutes a "traditional level" is basically to turn off the legal-immigrant spigot and restrict those very reduced numbers allowed to come to the Land of Opportunity mainly to Europeans.

The money behind the organization comes from John Tanton who is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center--

NumbersUSA [is] part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the “puppeteer” of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. . . . Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a “neo-Nazi organization.” He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were outbreeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, “a European-American majority” is required.

No mention in any of this is the clear evidence that up to half the new jobs created in America during the last decade is the result of immigrant entrepreneurs forming businesses.

It is sad that in our current political environment this cannot even be mentioned. We instead "debate" the role of private equity capitalists--such as those at Bain Capital--and the wealthiest one percent in creating jobs when in truth it is more these new Americans who are the real job creators. And most of them are not from Europe.