When discussing the problem with immigration in the comment section of my former article here, I realized that the prior information was not dire enough for people to understand the situation we are in. Here is a small part of the consequences of our immigration issue that is quite amazing and is hard to argue against. I would like to use our oil dependence as a rationale behind why we need more regulation with our legal and illegal immigration.

The United States is using more oil than it can produce annually. We use about 24.6% of the worlds energy, and produce about 8% of this global extraction*. We are now in a negative production to consumption ratio (production 2.5 billion/consumption 7.5 billion). So why do we want more people in this country increasing this very negative situation? Imagine a banner that says, “Want more war and strife in the Middle East? Want more foreign energy dependence in America? Do you want America to have more hands in other countries’ natural resources? Then promote immigration into the United States today!” I am not making this statement to upset anyone. This is just to help people realize what we are up against. I am just looking at the numbers, plain and simple. Let me explain.

We are ruining our chances of having a strong independent nation by depending on foreign oil too much. Why do you think we are in Iraq to this day? WMD’s? Ha ha! Do we need to be more dependent than what we already are? Is that the way to a stronger nation? Yeah, we could work on becoming a leader in alternative fuels, but are we even heading in that direction? No. Even if we adopt whole heartedly a greener more oil independent lifestyle, it could take 15 to 20 years to completely install all the processes to do so (See this article for how problematic it is to become less dependent on oil).

Does our national government even believe in global warming? No. I could get into the reasons why our government is being blind to anything other than oil, but I have mentioned it too many times before. Bottom line, if we project our future using the numbers of today, 25.3 barrels of oil per person per year added to the millions of immigrants, and collective mental attitudes towards this issue, big SUVs and a strong denial of inefficient waste, we are heading for disaster; period.

Let’s do the math: 25.3 barrels of oil per person* per year is consumed. So, that would be 7.5 billion barrels of oil* for last year. We produce about 2.5 billion barrels a year domestically* and have an estimated 29.3 billion barrels left* (estimates range from 20 to 30 billion), in our own reserve. With current trends PLUS the 1 million legal and 1 million illegal immigrants which add another 50.6 million barrels a year to the already exploding population from birth rates, we have about 4 years left if we tried to become independent and, importantly, let no one else in this country.

With this information now out in the open, why would anyone want to continually, and blindly, introduce millions more people into this country. This will only exacerbate our already increasing oil dependency. In another 20 or less years, we can add another FULL billion to our need, pushing it to 8.51 billion barrels needed per year. And that’s not including the demand with the ever expanding average birth rates for the immigrants (see this article for immigrant birth rates). Now this is just one aspect of the problem with immigration. But, it definitely is one that is not easily argued against. This is not biased toward any country, race, creed, religion, culture or country. It is just the numbers. This issue does not care if you are black, white, Mexican or Irish, because this is not an immigrant issue. This is an immigration issue.

Now, after many discussions with other intelligent people, I have realized that they have a lot compassion for people wanting to move here to the United States. Their argument is that America is founded on the very principle that all of us are immigrants. I am very proud and understanding of how we have a heart for these people. I hope no one loses that connection to another human being’s rights for happiness. But this is based on emotion and not logic. When we are dealing with the governing of a country, we have to be as logical as possible. Therefore, this is not the time for emotion. We have to keep a clear, lucid mind regarding what is best for this country, not what is best for a certain group of individuals. If we continue worrying about the individual and all of their problems, we will lose site of the what the global ramifications are.

Some great examples of individualized governing are the recent attempts to place religion in schools to cater to the fundamental Christian groups, trying to eliminate abortion because it is against a portion of society’s morals, allowing the lobbying of corporate conglomerates to extend their political influence, or the catering to the pharmaceutical industry and their limitless power. Every time we start catering to a specific demographic or group of peoples without seriously contemplating the global ramifications, we end up digging ourselves into a hole. The results can be destructive to our society such as our massive addiction to prescription medications, religious agendas resulting in societal polarizations, exportation of jobs overseas, displacement of workers through cheaper illegal sources, and environmental damage from big oil interference in regulation and information.

With all of this “reaching out”, we are causing a slow deterioration of our country. The world that all of us really want is being replaced with a world of class war, holy war, drug dependence, oil dependence, large corporate conglomerate dependence, and now an upcoming “immigration dependence”. Let’s stop catering to certain people and cater to our own country.

And, if you are still on the fence because you have a passion for helping people, I have another perspective for you to consider. For every one person that immigrates into this country there is 25.3 (barrels/oil) more reasons for us to meddle in other countries’ affairs. This in turn can lead to instability and war, which in turn leads to more human suffering and societal ills.

If you truly want to help people on a global scale, then create a stronger more independent America. This way we will be involved in other countries for a true, selfless, legitimate reason, instead of trying to secure our selfish “addictions”. So, when someone starts to tell you why immigration is not a problem, I hope you will tell them, “I want to help in the long term not the short. Our government’s ideal on pro-immigration is exacerbating our oil addiction and dependence. Rather than pro-immigration, I am pro-American stability and pro-American independence!”

Resources used for article:

http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/ene-energy
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption#source
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2174.html
http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6842&contentId=7021390

*Details gathered from the Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 produced by BP