"What's kinda funny is that it seems like the same thing is happening to immigration laws in California, and that's what makes you guys so angry."
I understand what you are saying about speeders and agree - police are selective in enforcing the laws. In some cases this is due to personal feelings, and in other cases due to popular opinion, or in other cases, as in some northeastern states that there are SO MANY laws on the books that they have to prioritize.
Some of this may impact the enforcement of laws against illegal invaders.
However, where I and many of the posters on this fourm disagree with you is that inllegal invaders constitute a serious menace to our security, health, economics, law and order, and identity as a nation - which is a far worse a crime than somebody going over the speed limits, smoking some pot, or getting sex from a prostitute. Those are all crimes involving individuals and have limited ramifications.
The total meltdown on our borders and the deliberate policy of this President and his Attorny General to enforce the immigration and border laws have placed the entire nation at risk. Not to mention, contributed to the debacle at the polls recently.
"I like the illegals, so I had no problem with the law not being enforced while I lived in California."
There is no reason you should like illegals unless you are involved in a business venture which profits from their presence. They steal your tax dollars whne then use the social network you pay for and they don't, they can bring in alien diseases of a horrific nature, they feed the underground economy which further erodes your income, they bring crime with them, and they constitute a presence here which is not supportive of traditional American values.
"That seems to be a cultural difference between the two states that, frankly, favors Texas. "
You said it.
I haven't lived in California for a long time. One of the things I miss the most in California is the fact that there is a dynamic society, there are people coming in who want to make a new life for themselves.
Here in Pennsylvania things are static, the state is losing residents, taxes are sky-high (worse than in California) because infrastructure has to be maintained that was scaled to support a population that is no longer here.
I am in no way convinced that illegals are doing anything all that bad. They help keep a lot of jobs in California that are NOT held by illegals.
When I was in California, I worked for a mid-sized manufacturing company. They employed Hispanics in the factory and Americans in the sales and administrative departments. I don't know the legal status of the hispanic workforce, but I have to assume much of it was illegal.
I don't think the company could have been competitive in the hyper-competitive industry it was in without illegals.
So do you eliminate all these administrative and support jobs - most of which pay quite well, thank you - because the illegals supposedly are bad for us?
I met many of them and found them to be very hard-working and good people. Frankly, most of them are far harder working than the American citizens I've seen working similar jobs.
I think that if you get rid of illegals, you leech the dynamism out of our economy and hurt it enormously.
I happen to think the best society is a growing, dynamic one, and so I like illegal aliens and don't see what all the negativity is all about.
Maybe that's partially because I actively dislike the institutions that are mentioned as being hurt by them. Our schools were lousy before illegals. Our hospitals were overpriced before illegals. Far as I'm concerned, nothing has changed. We just have a scapegoat to blame for the problems. Get rid of the scapegoat, and I guarantee you our hospitals won't get any cheaper, and our schools won't get any better.
D