In this issue of The Social Contract, we focus on some of the ways unrestricted, mass immigration is harming Americans. Just going about your daily business can place you at risk from foreign drivers who are under the influence of alcohol and drugs, which, as contributors Peter Gemma and Dave Gibson point out, kill and injure thousands of other drivers and pedestrians every year.

Too many of these dangerous individuals are repeat offenders who have been deported but were allowed to return to the United States, thanks to porous borders and a deliberate unwillingness on the part of “responsible” government authorities to keep illegals out of the country.

The presence of illegal aliens is eroding the availability and quality of public health care at the expense of American taxpayers, which is basically another form of victimization. Many are granted special access to treatment at America’s emergency rooms, including foreign language interpreters at taxpayers’ expense, which President Clinton’s Executive Order 13166 mandates. Health care costs
are skyrocketing and no relief is in sight.

America’s student population is harmed by low-wage competition from “temporary” visa holders who are commandeering thousands of summer and part-time jobs that have gone to teenagers in past years. At the same time, high-tech visa holders, who are imported by the hundreds of thousands every year by U.S. employers, undermine the post-graduate value of increasingly expensive college degrees. Furthermore, institutions of higher education are permitted to import foreign graduate students who serve as part-time
instructors at colleges and universities across the country. Career
opportunities for Americans, especially in the STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, have been grievously compromised by these policies.

Additionally, public schools are directing more and more resources to non- and limited-English-students entering at record numbers. An estimated five million limited-English students are currently enrolled in U.S. public schools.

Special thanks to Rick Oltman, who suggested we draw attention to this theme and who recruited a number of the contributors to this issue.