CAPS Deserves Credit for Telling the Truth

Here is the latest example of media bias and reporting malpractice: “Yesterday, the Star-Ledger (Newark) posted the Center for New Community’s response to their columnist Paul Mulshine’s defense of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). CAPS is an anti-immigrant organization that uses environmentalism to mask its bigotry. Mulshine claims that CAPS is right to blame all manner of problems on immigration-fueled population growth. He writes: “Those of us in CAPS understand that none of those problems can be solved with the growth of people. Every increment of new people cancels out the efficiency improvements the people living there are asked to make.” . . . But we don’t think scapegoating will solve our environmental woes or our traffic jams. . . . CAPS is marginalized by the environmental movement because its true focus is stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and against immigration.” – CAPS Doesn’t Deserve to be Defended, Imagine 2050, Lindsey Schubiner 6/16/15.

Fact Check: The radical left-wing Center for New Community seeks to defame and discredit all proposals for immigration reduction with politically-correct smear language. Thus it labels them as “anti-immigrant,” suggesting that personal animus against immigrants is the only motive for advocating limits. Similarly, restriction is labeled as “bigotry.”

According to the dictionary, a bigot is one who “holds blindly or intolerantly to . . . an opinion.” Just what is blind or intolerant about CAPS’ view is not revealed. Actually, Mulshine makes a reasonable argument that California’s population growth, largely driven by immigration in recent decades, has aggravated the consequences of the state’s present drought.

It should be obvious that rising human population poses significant challenges to the environment that sustains us. Thus, for genuine environmentalists, it is hardly inappropriate to criticize immigration as a force pushing population growth. Radical leftists perform all kinds of mental and rhetorical gymnastics to evade these rather self-evident truths. Typical is the Center for New Community’s response that criticism of immigration amounts to the “scapegoating” of immigrants.

Once again, this organization employs smear language to divert attention from real issues. It is hardly “scapegoating” to point out the scientifically provable fact that immigrants, like all human beings, use resources and have an environmental impact—an impact we can limit if we choose to decrease the level of immigration.

The reality is that radical leftists often use environmentalism as a mask to hide their multicultural bigotry and their designs for political power using immigrants as voting blocs. Sadly, this mentality seems prevalent in many environmental groups. Other factors, such as money, also come into play. A case in point is the Sierra Club, perhaps the leading environmentalist organization in the country. Not too long ago, the position of the Sierra Club on national overpopulation and immigration was similar to CAPS’. But that was before leftist billionaire David Gelbaum gave the Sierra Club $100 million—on the condition that it not raise the issue of immigration.

One wonders who will save the environment, as so many environmentalists ignore population. CAPS is doing a good job to fill the gap.

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