Monday, March 27, 2006

Mexico's high birth rate: a big factor in our immigration issue

It is kind of ironic that many Republicans in Congress are alarmed and wanting to crack down on illegal immigration, yet they are often the ones to oppose funding for family planning in places like Mexico. I have heard that USA has become somewhat of a safety valve for overcrowding in Mexico.

Besides better birth control, it seems like most of our attempts to control immigration turn out to be rather punitive. Sure we do need to streamline the deportation process, and so forth, but rounding up and deporting 12 million illegal aliens, now in the US, is not practical. Plus much of our economy has become dependent on the labor of illegal aliens. It just seems somewhat punitive and impractical to ship that many folks out of the country.

On the other hand, USA is getting more crowded all the time. The whole world is getting crowded. Even Mexico is getting more crowded. I am sure there are many Mexican offspring who stay in Mexico.

For a while, we can learn to accommodate more people. Denser city planning, wiser use of resources, public transit, less space taken up for parking lots. In many ways, these changes could even improve our economy and quality of life. Still there is a point in which people need to support family planning.

Republicans and others alike: it is time to discard your aversions to organizations like Planned Parenthood.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From today's news:

"VATICAN CITY -
Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that low birth rates in Canada are the
result of the "pervasive effects of secularism" and asked the
country's bishops to counter the trend by preaching the truth of
Christ.

Benedict, who has spoken out several times in favor of large families, blamed Canada's low birth rate on social ills and moral ambiguities that result from secular ideology."

This is like scorning the slim and healthy for not overeating.
Considering that overpopulation on a global level threatens to consume
and destroy us, making most of us poor, and making the already poor
totally desperate, you'd think that a spokesman for God would praise Canada for its low-birth rate.

Oh well. The Church finally apologized over its treatment of Galileo three and a half centuries after the fact. Maybe three centuries from now they will realize there is a population crisis.

Theslowlane Robert Ashworth said...

Even with Canada's low birth rate, there are more than enough people who would dream of the chance to be able to immigrate to Canada.