Like most North Carolinians, I support sensible immigration reductions to slow down population growth and protect our state’s valued farmland and nature.
Only two states in the last four decades have lost more farmland and natural habitat than North Carolina — more than 2.5 million acres. A study of government data has calculated that accommodating the state’s exploding population (more than 4.2 million additional residents) was responsible for most of that loss.
North Carolina’s residents don’t want this rate of growth and rural destruction to continue. A recent poll found that 81% of voters answered that they either want the population to grow “much more slowly” (50%) or not at all (31%). I agree with that and other poll results showing that North Carolinians by wide margins want less development in order to protect the state’s way of life, its productive agricultural land, and the natural habitats that sustain the rich but threatened plant and wildlife of our mountains, piedmont, and coastal plains.
As a Member of Congress, you can help by working to reduce annual immigration back to more moderate traditional levels. Federal immigration policies are now responsible for about 90% of the nation’s population growth. And most of North Carolina’s population growth since 1980 is the direct result of immigration plus the Americans moving in from other states of much higher direct immigration, population growth and density, and cost of living.
Until federal officials lower and moderate the numerical level of immigration, even the best local plans and political commitment will be unable to stop the loss of North Carolina farmland and open space resulting from human sprawl.
While policies of Congress continue to force population growth, there are many actions that North Carolina can take locally to at least slow down the flow of new residents into the state and to mitigate some of the negative effects of the many who will still come. Although NumbersUSA is not involved directly in these efforts or in making endorsements of organizations, here are some resources:
