If Nevadans wish to prevent their state from becoming another California, they should urge Sen. Harry Reid to reintroduce his "Immigration Stabilization Act," which would substantially reduce immigration.

In the 1950s, Californians enjoyed great schools and an excellent quality of life. Yet since then California's population has tripled -- and many long-term residents have left the state for greener pastures.

Rapid population growth is expensive to taxpayers. In the past 14 years, California voters passed school bonds totaling $18 billion for K-12 schools alone. Even so, its schools are swamped with children speaking limited English. The California Transportation Commission estimated in 1999 that, over the next 10 years, the state will need $100 billion to fund the transportation projects necessary to handle additional traffic.

In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences found that in California, on average, each native household paid $1,200 a year more in taxes due to immigration, the main cause of the state's population increases. Have pro-growth policy-makers in Nevada computed all the costs of providing infrastructure, water and energy for newcomers?

Although Nevada experienced the highest percentage rate of growth in the United States between 1990 and 1999, population has also exploded in other states. In the past decade alone, the 2000 Census found, 33 million people were added to this nation's population. Nearly 70 percent of this increase was immigration-related.

The children of many of these immigrants are not learning English. Currently, more than 50 languages are spoken in the Clark County School District. Even schoolchildren in North Carolina speak 170 languages. One-third of immigrants have no high school diplomas. Those wage-earners are not likely to pay enough Social Security taxes to offset the benefits they receive when they retire.

Isn't mass immigration exacerbating the problems we are trying to solve? If the demographic trends of this past decade continue, within the lifetimes of today's children, this country will be half as crowded as today's China.

Furthermore, bilingual education, progress in telecommunications and transportation, an explosion of ethnic media and multilanguage services, and continued massive waves of immigrants coming from more than 100 countries are destroying our historical assimilation process. Asian and Hispanic immigrants may leave their children a country that resembles Mexico or India.

While this country should reduce the immigration levels across the board, professor Samuel P. Huntington, chairman of the Harvard Academy for International Area Studies, believes mass immigration from Mexico is becoming a national security issue. In fact, if the United States continues to grow as it did in the past decade, by 2044 Hispanics will be the majority in the United States; Mexicans (and those of Mexican descent) will be the majority by 2061. California, New Mexico and possibly Texas, are already minority-majority states, with Hispanics being the fastest growing group. Hispanic professor Charles Truxillo of the University of New Mexico predicted last year that it is an "inevitability" that the Southwest will secede into a sovereign Hispanic nation as a result of continuing immigration.

As Hispanics are replacing blacks as this nation's largest minority group, tensions are expected to rise between Hispanics and other racial groups. An example of the incendiary language that may become more common came from Mario Obledo, former California secretary of health and welfare, who said publicly that those who don't like Mexicans "should go back to Europe."

Presently, Mexican President Vicente Fox is pushing for 3 million to 4 million illegal Mexican immigrants to receive amnesty, in addition to visas for hundreds of thousands of guest workers. If illegals are granted amnesty and later become U.S. citizens, we will see many new voters.

Naturalized citizens can also petition for extended families to immigrate to this country. In the meantime, children born in the United States of all newcomers, legal and illegal, are American citizens and can become voters when they reach 18. Is this what former Mexican President Zedillo had in mind when he affirmed in 1997 that "the Mexican nation extends beyond its territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important, a very important part of it"?

Mass immigration is a time bomb. As the assistant majority leader, Sen. Reid should advocate a moratorium on immigration. This move is crucial so we can address problems such as traffic congestion, energy shortages, overcrowded schools, potential Social Security insolvency and race relations.

Yeh Ling-Ling is the executive director of Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, a national nonprofit organization based in Oakland, Calif. Write her c/o Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 517, Oakland, CA 94612.

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