A Market for Immigration

Illegal immigration imposes large economic costs on U.s. taxpayers. The costs are disproportionately concentrated on citizens of southern border states and of other states in which illegal immigrants concentrate. The illegal immigrants themselves also suffer significant costs of migration, such as monetary payments for transportation to or across the border and physical costs, including death. These costs, as well as the benefits to the economy of the illegal immigrant labor force, have been the subject of heated political debate, and polls show that Us. citizens place the issue of immigration at or near the top of the list of domestic problems that must be addressed. The issue of illegal immigration, particularly from Mexico, is doubly important, in that it is also perceived as a national security problem. Dealing with illegal immigration is a thorny political problem, since both political parties seek to curry favor with the Hispanic population, which is now the largest Us. minority community. Hence, Congress has been reluctant to take drastic action to strengthen border security or to enforce immigration law on illegal immigrants already in the United States unless they commit felonies. This study looks at the impacts on the United States and on potential immigrants of a legal market for immigration into the U. S. The current immigration laws and regulations are summarized, and rules for an immigration market are identified. The basic provision of a market for immigration would allow individuals who qualified for immigration to the United States under current laws and quotas, and who had been awarded legal immigrant status, to sell their right to immigrate to others who could qualify under the law, but who had not completed the process to obtain legal immigrant status. The effects of those structures and rules on legal and illegal immigration are analyzed in the context of economic efficiency and equity. Estimates of the impact of a market for immigration on costs and benefits of immigration, including illegal immigration, are provided, and policy recommendations are identified

Repaying credit debts and loans (1997)

"Information from Human Environmental Sciences Extension.""Family economics."Revised 10/97/5M

National Goals and Human Resources Development

During this year the United States will reach a population of 200 million persons. In materials things it is, by a wide margin, the richest nation on earth. With approximately 6 to 7 percent of the World\u27s population it will produce at least one-third of the world\u27s goods and services. Measured from almost any quantifiable category or criteria, it ranks first. In per capita income we are substantially above our nearest competitor. The gross national product in 1966 was $3770 per person. We could, on any afternoon, take the entire population for an automobile ride and have everyone sit in the front seat. By using the back seat also, and with not more than 5 persons per car, we could include the population of Canada, France, Great Britian and Germany. This is a feat that could not be even remotely approximated in any other nation. Of automobiles, color television sets, tele,phones, private boats, yachts, private swimming pools, gadgetry and bathtubs, we have the most

Bulletin No. 183 - Water-Holding Capacity of Irrigated Soils

All information that will \u27enable the irrigator to use water economically is valuable to arid-climate agriculture. In many arid-climate regions, including the western part of the United States, excessive waste of water occurs in the irrigation of highland porous soil areas, as a result of lack of information concerning the capacity of the soil to hold water. Following the waste of water on the uplands by excessive percolation through open soils, vast lowland areas are rendered partially or wholly nonproductive by water-logging. To illustrate, a gravelly bench soil four feet deep, if underlain by a coarse open gravel to a great depth, has the power to hold but a small amount of water. If, to such a soil, a large amount of water is applied in a single irrigation, then unnecessary waste through deep percolation inevitably follows. Furthermore, the wasted water slowly but surely finds its way to low-lying lands from which there is in adequate natural drainage, and water-logging results. It is doubtful if an acre of a typical upland soil, four feet deep, would retain more than three acre-inches of irrigation water. If therefore it took six hours adequately to cover an acre with a 2-second-foot stream, the total amount of water applied would be 12 acre-inches an acre, or four times what the soil could retain. Such excessive applications frequently result from the difficulty in getting the water spread uniformly over the surface. In the illustration given above it is clear that 9 acre-inches, of the 12 acre-inches applied to one acre, must be lost to the upland soil and added to the lowland soil, provided of course allowance is made for evaporation losses. The experiments reported in this bulletin were planned to measure the capacity of some soils to retain water, and thereby assist the irrigator better to determine the proper amount of water to apply to such soils in single irrigations

USU Telemetering Precipitation Gage Network

A network of telemetering precipitation gages is operating in the mountainous areas of northern Utah, western Wyoming, and southern Idaho as part of the Wasatch Weather Modification Project. Approximately 40 individual gages collected and reported data during the 1968-69 winter season from distances up to 130 miles. In addition to the remotely located gages, the system includes an Automatic Readout Console (ARC) at the Utah Water Research Laboratory that is connected by a cable to a translator on top of Mt. Logan. The ARC is the control center for the network, interrogating in a predetermined programmed sequence the remote telemetry gages, and printing their transmitted data on paper tape. Procedures for selecting gage and translator sites and obtaining authorization to install network equipment are discussed. A photograph of the automatic Readout Console and a listing of the functions of its various chassis are presented. Brief non-technical discussions related to the installation, operation and maintenance of the system are also included

Religion and Economic Development in Utah, 1847-1900

When Mormon settlers arrived in the Great Basin in the summer of 1847, the region was still Mexican territory notable mainly for its iso1ation--1,OOO miles to the nearest markets--and for its inhospitable environment. The economic isolation of Utah ended with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. During the interim, the Mormons developed a regional economic system which coined and printed its own medium of exchange, engaged in foreign trade with the States, dealt with balance-of-payments problems, assimilated large numbers of immigrants, and began the process of economic development. The affairs of this regional commonwealth were directed by Brigham Young, not from his position as Governor of Utah Territory, but by virtue of his position as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Group economic self-sufficiency was stressed, and uncontrolled market capitalism was rejected in favor of cooperative and cornmunitarian economic institutions and centralized theocratic direction and control

A Computer Model of the Quantity and Chemical Quality of Return Flow

A hybrid computer program is developed to predict the water and salt outflow from a river basin in which irrigation is the major water user. A chemical model which predicts the quality of water percolated through a soil profile is combined with a general hydrologic model into form the system simulation model. The chemical model considers the reactions that occur in the soil, including the exchange of calcium, magnesium, and sodium cations on the soil complex, and the dissolution and precipitation of gypsum and lime. The chemical composition of the outflow is a function of these chemical processes within the soil, plus bending of undiverted inflows, evaporations, transpirations, and the mixing of subsurface return flows with groundwater. The six common ions of western waters, namely calcium (Ca++), magnesium Mg ++), sodium (Na +), sulfate (SO 4=), chloride (Cl-), and bicarbonate (HCO3-), are considered in the study. Total dissolved solids (TDS) outflow is obtained by adding the individual ions. The overall model operates on monthly time increments. The model is tested on a portion of the Little Bear River Basin in northern Utah. The model successfully simulates measured outflows of water and each of the six ions for a 24-month period. Only sodium ions, which occurred in small concentrations comprising approximately 2 percent of the total salt outflow, exhibit significant discrepancies between predicted and observed values. All other ions agree within 10 percent on a weight basis for the two-year model period, with correlation coefficients ranging from .87 to .97. The usefulness of the model is demonstrated by a management study of the prototype system. For example, preliminary results indicated that the available water supply could be used to irrigate additional land without unduly increasing the salt outflow from the basin. With minor adjustments the model can be applied to other areas

Feasibility of Accelerating Construction of the Central Utah Project

Introduction: Objective: In April, 1977 the President\u27s statement on water projects recommended that a number of federal water development projects, including the Conneville unit of the Central Utah Project, not be completed. The ensuing efforts of project supporters brought about a review of the projected costs, benefits, and other political, social and environmental factors and consequently, the current issue is not whether or not the project should be constructed. Rather, the objective of this report is to examine the following question: Given the fact that at least the 5 units of the CUP which have already been authorized will eventually be constructed, what is the most desireable rate of construction funding

Preliminary Identification, Analysis, and Classification of Odor-Causing Mechanisms Influenced by Decreasing Salinity of the Great Salt Lake

Introduction: The rising level of the Great Salt Lake has received a great deal of attention because of the resulting physical damage to adjoining properties, threatened distruption of major transportation facilities, and environmental damage to feeding and resting areas for migratory waterfowl. Another problem of growing concern is that some zones of the lake are producing odors that are objectionable to nearby populated areas. These odors are most offensive during the warm summer months and appear to be increasing with the rising levels and decreasing salinity of the lake water. This report presents the approach taken and the findings of a short-term investigation completed by the Utah Water Research Laboratory to determine the sources and mechanisms causing the odor. At the outset of the study, it was hypothesized that the odors come from one or more of the following sources: 1) bottom sediments which contain municipal and agricultural seqage residues and industrial wastes; 2) decay of algal blooms and the organic material produced by the algae; 3) decaying vegetative matter on land areas that have only recently been inundated by the rising water of the lake; and 4) decaying pupae cases of brine flies. The first tree of these were investigated briefly in the laboratory using lake water and sediment samples. Information on brine flies was derived from the literature from numerous studies taht have been made during recent years