Where does this myth that President Trump's immigration policies have been "restrictive" come from?

Article author: 
Stuart H. Hurlbert, Emeritus Professor, San Diego State University
Article publisher: 
Wall Street Journal
Article date: 
13 March 2020
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 
Regarding James K. Glassman's "Where's That 3% Growth?" (op-ed, Feb. 27): The usual plutocratic focus on total GDP ignores that per capita GDP is a better, though hardly perfect, measure of the economic quality of life for most citizens.
 
Where does this myth that Trump's immigration policies have been "restrictive" come from? Trump is still admitting about 1 million persons per year. That is greatly in conflict with what has been recommended for decades.
 
In 1972 the Rockefeller commission recommended immigration not exceed 400,00 per year. In 1994 Sen. Harry Reid drafted unsuccessful legislation to get it cut to 325,000. In 1995 Rep. Barbara Jordan's Commission on Immigration Reform recommended not more than 550,000 per year. In 1996, President Bill Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development recommended we move toward US population stabilization - that would require immigration levels of less than 300,000 per year. Many environment-focused NGOs have long supported the same. The reputable Harvard-Harris polling organization found in 2018 that 72% of voters wanted less than 1 million per year, and 54% less than 500,000 per year.
 
A continuously growing human population is tremendously environmentally destructive.
 
The Old World did that "experiment" long before the modern era. That is why large parts of it, from Spain and Morocco, south into the Sahel and east to the South China Sea, are such environmental "basket cases" for which there are no short term remedies.*
 
[* The last paragraph was unfortunately excised by the editor over the author's objections.]