Excessive immigration is sinking Golden State
By Yeh Ling-Ling
Published October 5, 2003, in the Contra Costa Times
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Excessive immigration has direct impact on Californians' most basic concerns. It
affects the economic and political future of California and the United States. Even so, this critical issue has been largely ignored by most leaders.
There are at least 400,000 illegal immigrant students in California's schools.
The cost of educating a child averages $6,000 or more a year. Illegal immigrant parents are mostly low-skilled. Even if they do pay taxes, their tax payments are not enough to offset the cost of educating their children, let alone other expensive services
and infrastructure.
Currently, more than 25 percent of our federal prison inmates are illegal aliens who committed crimes. Many county hospitals are on the verge of bankruptcy because of the care that they provide to illegal
immigrant families.
Instead of urging the federal government to reduce immigration, enforcement of immigration laws, and deportation of those here illegally, many politicians actively advocate an amnesty and benefits for over 2 million illegal aliens in California. They favor free health care, driver's licenses, in-state tuition to state universities, free tuition in California community colleges and other measures that will encourage more illegal immigration.
Is it responsible to reward those who have broken laws with benefits while cutting programs that negatively impact American and legal immigrant families?
Immigration advocates claim that illegal immigrants are needed to boost California's economy. If this were true, why is it that California, the largest illegal-immigration-receiving state, is experiencing its worst budgetary deficits? The truth is that jobs that illegal aliens are holding in California are still performed by many poor Americans in states that have low levels of immigration.
California still has millions of low-skilled unemployed or underemployed legal residents, able-bodied welfare recipients, and nonviolent prison inmates. Why not give incentives to them to fill those positions? Why continue to spend billions every year to provide services to illegals?
Mass immigration is also leading to growing fragmentation and political instability in California and the nation. Not only do many colleges conduct graduation ceremonies in foreign languages, ballots in many precincts are printed in the native languages of naturalized citizen voters. Ethnic media have exploded as well. At the same time, many ethnic student organizations in our colleges are pushing vigorously for ethnic politics. For example, MEChA, which has been widely covered in the news lately, is an organization of students of Mexican descent that is very active on the nation's college campuses. Its constitution calls for the "liberation" of the American Southwest.
Meanwhile, many Mexican-American leaders in the United States have made statements consistent with their counterparts in Mexico. For example, Mario Obledo, co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, said publicly in 1998: "Eventually, we are going to take over all the political institutions of California."
Charles Truxillo, a New Mexico university professor, indicated that the American Southwest's secession is an "inevitability" due to Hispanic immigration. He promised to use the electoral pressure of the future Hispanic majority to achieve this goal.
Although many Mexican migrants are good workers and have no political agenda,
they can be mobilized by, or unknowingly vote for, separatists and persuaded to support Mexico's interests when they turn 18. Recently, Mexico has been actively pushing for the acceptance of Mexican ID cards in many states, amnesty and benefits for millions of illegal Mexican immigrants, and more guest worker programs. In the last decade, the Mexican population here has exploded. Isn't it clear Mexico is using immigration to influence American policies and that this is just the begining?
High immigration is adversely impacting natives and legal immigrants, and many
positive programs that also affect Mexican-Americans have been cut. Concerned Californians should urge candidates for governor to oppose amnesty and all benefits to illegal aliens. American leaders serious about addressing voters' concerns should take effective steps to drastically reduce immigration.
Unless California's leaders have the courage to advocate immigration reduction,
the necessary first step, no real solution to our problems is possible.
Yeh Ling-Ling is the executive director of Diversity Alliance for a
Sustainable America, www.diversityalliance.org.
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