Immigration Effects on California

Immigration News ^

[Founding Father]

Immigration Effects on California

· Labor market unable to absorb huge flow. A recently released report by the prestigious Rand Think Tank found that the California job market cannot continue to absorb the huge number of low-skill, under-educated immigrants. The report found that the number of low-skill jobs, 2. 5 million, is almost unchanged from 1970 and that the growing number of immigrants are putting increased demands on public services, especially schools.

· Agricultural Labor. According to a UC publication (1998) 91. 5% of the farm and field labor in California is comprised of Hispanics. Most of the Hispanic workers are from Mexican origin and about 42% without residential status.

· New market opportunities and shifts. The wide variety of ethnicities, especially the growth of the Hispanic population, in the state also permits the development of new cropping systems that provide for their different culinary interests, keeping a captive market.

· Agricultural abundance (valued at $13 billion annually) threatened. A new study by the American Farmland Trust found that with California's population projected to nearly double by 2040 and the population of the state's agricultural heartland, the Central Valley projected to triple to 12 million, over 1 million acres – one in every seven – will be urbanized. Cornell University expert on agricultural ecology David Pimentel, finds that population growth is a major contributor to the 122,000 acres (3%) of cropland lost from production each year. If this trend continues, in less than 20 years about one-half of California's farmland will no longer be available for production.

· Higher than average immigrant fertility a growing contributor to population growth. While births to U. S. born women have remained close to the 1970 level of 324,375 for more than a decade, rising to just 334,008 in 1992, the total number of annual births in California has jumped from 362,652 to 600,838 – an increase largely attributable to immigrant women whose share of total births has quadrupled from 11% in 1970 to 44% in 1992.

· Human growth is squeezing out other life forms (negative environmental impact). In California one of every three vertebrate species and one in ten native plant species are in serious danger of extinction. Habitat the size of San Francisco is converted from natural vegetation or agricultural land to residential or commercial use every six months. 72% of California's native freshwater fish are listed as threatened or endangered, and are likely candidates for listing, or are already extinct. A study of storm water run-off flowing into Santa Monica Bay found that over 65,000 pounds of lead, 18,000 pounds of copper and a staggering 2,110,000 pounds of oil and grease are washed into the bay each year.

The state lists 34 species of animals and 46 species of plants as having been extirpated since the 1880s and the combined state and federal lists of rare, threatened or endangered plant and animal species in the state numbers 330, although state and federal officials admit that there are far more candidate species identified.

In the 1780’s with a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands, California had an estimated 5 million acres of wetlands. Now, after justtwo centuries of explosive population growth, there are over 32 million people and only about 454,000 acres of wetlands – a 90% loss.

Although California's "ecological footprint" spans the globe, key local resources such as water are insufficient for continued growth. Because of trade and pollution, the resources and environmental impacts of California's high-consumption lifestyles do not come from (or remain) strictly within the state's borders, i. e. the land area necessary to support California's population and absorb its wastes is much greater than the area of the state (its ecological footprint).

The average decline in the state's water table is an astounding 0. 5 to 3. 5 feet per year. Projected shortfalls of water needed by 2020 are estimated at 4. 2 million acre-feet in good rainfall years and nearly twice that in drought years. The state's top water officials admit that even if all practical conservation measures are carried out, rising demand in the coming decades will exceed supply by the amount of water needed to irrigate a million acres of crops or sustain a city of 800,000 people.

· California, immigrant welfare magnet. By 1990, California's welfare benefit package was second only to Alaska in its generosity. Between 1980 and 1990 the fraction of new immigrants not on welfare who chose to live in California actually dropped. However, the fraction of new immigrants on welfare who chose to reside in California sharply increased from 36. 9% to 45. 4 %.

· Educational system overwhelmed. The CA Department of Finance projects the student population to balloon from just over 5 million in 1992-93 to nearly 7 million in a decade, with two-thirds of the growth coming from immigration. The state would have to build a classroom every hour, and a 650-student school every day just to meet the increased enrollments.

California also ranks first in the number of students who speak little or no English, 1. 4 million or one of every four students. Nine of the top 15 school districts with the highest number of limited English proficiency students are in California: Santa Ana (69%), Glendale (52%), Los Angeles (46%), Garden Grove (43%), Fresno (32%), San Francisco (29%), San Diego (26%), Montebello (26%). More than two-thirds of students entering Cal State campuses in the Los Angeles area lack high school level math and English skills. At some high schools not a single graduate going on to Cal State schools passed the basic skill tests.

[Cultural Jihad]

What is wrong with Christian charities?

Well, Sabergum's goal was to provide disincentives to migrants, and merely banning welfare doesn't close all the incentives. Hence the UberKonservativs would also have to ban private Christian charity. But it's a small price to pay for the worthy cause of not having to hear Spanish spoken at a drive-through restaurant, eh?

[NewRomeTacitus]

Insult to a person no longer able to denfend himself on this forum followed by insinuations of Nazism and racism. You've got to step it up or you'll cease having any amusement value at all.

Got to go now. May Jesus intercede for your soul. This tagline's for you.

[television is just wrong]

you are right. We cannot raise them up, but they can sure pull us down.

[lilmsdangrus]

bump!!!

[Travis McGee]

Yep, that billboard is for real. It means,

"VIVA RECONQUISTA! VIVA AZTLAN! VENCEREMOS! WE WILL WIN!"

[judgeandjury]

But it's a small price to pay for the worthy cause of not having to hear Spanish spoken at a drive-through restaurant, eh?

It doesn't have anything to do with what language is spoken at a drive-through restaurant. It has to do with whether the employees at a drive-through restaurant are in the United States legally. But then, you already knew that.

[Nea Wood]

"Abner! Come quick! Some Mexicans are moving in across the street! Abner! And listen, Abner! They're speaking Spanish! Call the sheriff!"

"Oh, now they've got chickens in the yard, Abner! Oh, and that loud mariachi music all night long! Look at all the shopping carts and junky cars parked on their lawn now, Abner! Traffic blocking the street day and night. They're dealing drugs now, Abner! Ooooh, look at the nice day laborers urinating and defecating on our lawn, Abner! And what's that one-fingered gesture they're giving us? What's that you say, Abner? Our grandchild had the crap beaten out of him at school because he's not Mexican? And what? Our granddaughter was raped by an illegal? My, my. Oh, and our son was hit by an illegal alien driver? And our nephew can't find work because he doesn't speak Spanish. Mercy me, Abner. Maybe we should start ignoring those race-baiting, America-hating traitors who make fun of us for objecting to illegals, and instead, start fighting for our country and our countrymen. What do you think, Abner???"

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Be Ever Vigilant!

Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!

[american spirit]

One thing I'll never be able to figure out is how such a small organization seems to have so much sway and power over issues such as this when literally millions of Americans oppose the SPLC's stance on current immigration policy.

[FBD]

bump to your post, NRT:

I'm reminded of a line from the baseball movie:
"If you build it they will come."

Well, if you remove it (social security, healthcare, welfare, drivers licenses, etc, etc)...they-
(ILLEGAL immigrants) will leave.

[FBD]

I bet fertilizers, batteries and lead paint comprise a large percentage of this lead in the ground water:

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2004/sep/science/rr_arsenic.html

But when you take into account leaching from cyanide/gold mining tailings of the old mining camps, that number is probably low. But it's all just a wild guess, I don't see how they could do anyhting but grab a number out of thin air.

At any rate, I don't see how lead is a problem caused by illegal aliens.

[rellimpank]

gold mining tailings of the old mining camps, that number is probably low.

Since the lead doesn't particularly leach, "But it's all just a wild guess" is probably closest to the truth---

[hosepipe]

Illegal aliens SHOULD be a State problem NOT a federal one..
Then the problem can be handeled.. State citizens care about their state the Fed DOES NOT.. IF the State rounded up the illegals and dropped them on the feds doorstep then the feds would have to do something about it..

-OR- BETTER, if the states just made doing business with illegals first a misdomeanor and then a felony then the illegals would move to a state that loved illegals .. solving the problem.. Its a State thing.. The United States HAS NO citizens only States do..

The federal government HAS no citizens and THATS the problem.. cedeing states rights to the feds.. STOP THAT and other problems will vanish too.. If they CAN'T work the illegals will become illegal somewhere ELSE.. Pretty soon the blue states would be inundated with illegals and might NOT be so BLUE anymore when the infrastucture is trashed..

[uncitizen]

it's beginning to look like that is the objective here.

[Cultural Jihad]

If someone is loud or defecates on your lawn or deals drugs or rapes then prosecute. But to claim that a loud person or a defacator or drug dealer or a rapist belongs to some big group which is all guilty and must all be persecuted is the product of a liberal mindset, not a conservative one.

[Pa' fuera]

You've forgotten just how liberal CA is -- there's a college place for every one.

makes one wonder who is going to all the community colleges?

[Pa' fuera]

"Abner! Come quick! Some Mexicans are moving in across the street! Abner! And listen, Abner! They're speaking Spanish! Call the sheriff!"

I hope she likes banda music blasting until 4 in the morning, because that's what she's in for

[Pa' fuera]

If someone is loud or defecates on your lawn or deals drugs or rapes then prosecute.

At that point, it's too late. I don't want to go through the trouble of having to testify against some rabble-rouser who will be out for vengeance once he gets his wrist slapped by the authorities. I'd rather have the government do its job and prevent whatever percentage of Hispanics are disorderly (and, though it might shock you, a certain percentage of them are disorderly) from coming here in the first place. We have plenty of disorderly people in this country without importing millions more

[Founding Father]

I am a strong believer in states rights and agree with much of what you say. I think we would have an even greater country if states could experiment with different programs. Some states would virtually eliminate welfare, while others would be more generous. Guess where the recipients would go? Same for abortion, taxes, education, etc.

The problem here is that defending the borders is one of the limited rights that the states ceded to the national government. So, what to do?Where would the states drop the illegals? It's easy to say the feds, but what if the feds refuse to take them?

I guess the answer is for either the feds to cede this authority back to the states, or have states pass their own laws about illegal immigration, but that really puts the burden back on the states. I don't see how you fight a war on terrorism if one state lets them in while another doesn't.

[La Enchiladita]

It definitely proves that the MSM is feeling the pressure and is trying it's best to distort public perception.

I now have the transcript but it is so loaded with inflammatory rhetoric and wild allegations -- to make the illegals look like victims of course -- that I can't post it.