Foreign Born

The U.S. foreign-born population has risen to its highest level since 1920, with 13% of all those living in the nation in 2010 having been born elsewhere, a new report from the Census Bureau shows. Forty million of those residing in the U.S. in 2010 were born in other countries, up from 31 million, or 11% of the total, a decade earlier. The foreign-born share of the population dropped between 1920 and 1970, hitting a low of 4.7% in 1970, before rising again for several decades. But that growth has slowed in recent years as immigration has dropped, census officials said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Behind the desk at his office in the Capitol, the Senate's assistant majority leader, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, keeps a framed copy of his mother's naturalization certificate. She was a toddler when she arrived from Lithuania and was 26 when she became a citizen. She had grown old by the time her son asked what had happened to her citizenship papers. "She wasn't in the best of shape then, but she pops up off the couch, and she's gone three minutes - tops - and comes in with this old, beat-up brown envelope, hands it to me," Durbin recalled in an interview this year.

U.S. immigration authorities said Thursday that they plan to interview every foreign-born crime suspect arrested in San Diego County as part of a nationwide effort to step up deportation of foreigners convicted of crimes in the United States. "The removal of criminal aliens is one of (our) . . . top priorities," Harold Ezell, western commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said in a news conference in San Diego.

The U.S. birthrate fell to a record low last year, coming in at its lowest level since statistics began being collected in 1920. The drop was largely driven by a reduction in births by immigrant women, who may have decided to have fewer children due to the tough economy, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center's Social Trends division . According to Pew, the birthrate was 63.2 babies per 1,000 women of childbearing age in 2011....

California has long been the ultimate melting pot, with the majority of its population coming from outside the state. Dust Bowl emigres, Asian railroad workers, high-tech entrepreneurs, Mexican laborers and war refugees from around the globe flocked to California. The majority migrant population filled the state's myriad labor needs, challenged the schools with a cacophony of new languages and roiled its politics with immigration debates. But, in a dramatic demographic shift, California's narrative as the nation's quintessential immigrant state is giving way to a new reality.

Michael Clough's essay in the March 31 Opinion section, while generally on the mark, disturbed me greatly on one particular point. Clough's first sentence reads, "America's national pastime isn't as 'American' as it used to be." He supports his theory first by examining the current Dodger starting rotation, which is wholly comprised of foreign-born pitchers, then by documenting the history of foreign-born baseball players and, finally, by pointing to signs that this trend is increasing in the '90s.

The U.S. birthrate fell to a record low last year, coming in at its lowest level since statistics began being collected in 1920. The drop was largely driven by a reduction in births by immigrant women, who may have decided to have fewer children due to the tough economy, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center's Social Trends division . According to Pew, the birthrate was 63.2 babies per 1,000 women of childbearing age in 2011....

Laws that discriminate between men and women have been regularly declared unconstitutional since the 1970s, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to permit an exception to that rule. At issue was when children born of mixed marriages abroad can claim U.S. citizenship. Congress has made it easier for unwed American mothers than it is for unwed fathers to pass on their citizenship. The foreign-born baby of an unmarried American mother is a U.S. citizen if the mother lived in the United States for at least one year.

Pat Buchanan, in "GOP's Foreign Labor Stance Is Suicide" (Column Right, Sept. 6), is wrong again, dead wrong. The fact that foreign-born scientists, artists and athletes keep coming to the U.S. is what makes America the greatest country in the world. During the Reagan years, there was no quota for temporary visas and U.S. employers were free to compete for international talent. Among the new influx of students taking computer studies as their majors at MIT, Caltech, Stanford and other top universities, many thousands were born in Asia, Europe, Canada and other countries.

In the article about Andre Agassi (July 6), it states, "Agassi (won at) Wimbledon, the first American to do so since John McEnroe in 1984." Have you heard of Martina Navratilova? The remark reeks of sexism and subtly posits that native-born citizens are somehow more authentic than foreign-born naturalized citizens. Perhaps more importantly, it's inaccurate. The truth would read, "the first native-born citizen of the United States to win the mens' singles title since John McEnroe in 1984."

The U.S. foreign-born population has risen to its highest level since 1920, with 13% of all those living in the nation in 2010 having been born elsewhere, a new report from the Census Bureau shows. Forty million of those residing in the U.S. in 2010 were born in other countries, up from 31 million, or 11% of the total, a decade earlier. The foreign-born share of the population dropped between 1920 and 1970, hitting a low of 4.7% in 1970, before rising again for several decades. But that growth has slowed in recent years as immigration has dropped, census officials said Thursday.

The North American Soccer League should have been entering its prime when it expired after 17 years, its life support mercifully unplugged after the 1984 season. An autopsy was never performed, but the suspected cause of death was greed, which fueled unchecked expansion and led to rosters chock-full of imports. Major League Soccer kicked off its 17th season this weekend appearing to be in the pink of good health. But the lessons of the past are never far from mind. "I don't think the ghosts of the NASL ever leave the offices of Major League Soccer," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said last week.

Imagine getting two dozen USC students together and none of them knowing the name of the Trojans' starting quarterback. That's what happened the other day on campus over at the Lyon Center, I swear. "Anyone know the name of the starting quarterback?" Nothing. Silence. Which, in itself, is a bizarre reaction for most of today's college students. Surely, they must be impostors, or UCLA plants, but really that's what happened, and USC's Don Ludwig was there to help. Ludwig has one of those great jobs you never knew existed, executive director of spirit and traditions at the school and a 38-year USC veteran overall.

Retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, who became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and guided military and humanitarian efforts in the post-Cold War era of the 1990s, has died. He was 75. Shalikashvili died Saturday morning at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state of complications from a stroke, the Army said in a statement. A native of Poland, Shalikashvili rose to the top military post at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration, from 1993 to 1997.

The Supreme Court upheld ethics laws across the nation that forbid legislators and city council members from voting on matters in which they have a conflict of interest, rejecting the argument that governmental votes cast by elected officials are free speech protected by the 1st Amendment. Conflict-of-interest rules "have been commonplace for over 200 years," said Justice Antonin Scalia, and they have never been thought to infringe on the free-speech rights of lawmakers, he said.

When it comes to President Obama's policies, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is happy to tell the American people what to think. But he draws the line at asking his constituents and others to abandon the belief that the president is a foreign-born Muslim. Boehner's selective tongue-tiedness insults the president and encourages the denial industry. In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Boehner was willing to concede that he believes Obama is both a native-born citizen and a Christian.

Earlimart gets back to business Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza flinches a bit when you ask about "Mentor Tormentor," the title of the band's fifth album, as if you were going to slap his hand with a ruler for the rhyme and wordplay. "It refers to a multitude of specific things -- the band, the music, the decision to even be an artist," he says.

I am writing in response to your article "Chinese Activism on the Rise" (Times, Oct. 17). While I understand the desire for Chinese-Americans to be able to communicate in a comfortable language during an emergency situation, it galls me to hear again and again how we need more bilingual services. This is, after all, America! We speak English here. If I were to immigrate to an Asian country, there is no way I would expect their government to change its priorities and speak English.

Congress on Wednesday is expected to begin its fight over extending legal immigration status to foreign-born youngsters with a scheduled cloture vote on the DREAM Act in the Senate. The bill, whose cloture vote is expected about 4 p.m. EST, is being heavily pushed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who was reelected with a large Latino vote last month. He pledged to bring the measure to a vote, though it will likely fail because of strong opposition from Republicans to a what they have called a mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Laws that discriminate between men and women have been regularly declared unconstitutional since the 1970s, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to permit an exception to that rule. At issue was when children born of mixed marriages abroad can claim U.S. citizenship. Congress has made it easier for unwed American mothers than it is for unwed fathers to pass on their citizenship. The foreign-born baby of an unmarried American mother is a U.S. citizen if the mother lived in the United States for at least one year.