Mexifornia, Five Years Later

City Journal ^ | 5 Feb 07 | Victor Davis Hansen

[rellimpank]

The flood of illegal immigrants into California has made things worse than I foresaw.

In the Spring 2002 issue of City Journal, I wrote an essay about growing up in the central San Joaquin Valley and witnessing firsthand, especially over the last 20 years, the ill effects of illegal immigration (City Journal’s editors chose the title of the piece: “Do We Want Mexifornia?”). Controversy over my blunt assessment of the disaster of illegal immigration from Mexico led to an expanded memoir, Mexifornia, published the following year by Encounter Press.

Mexifornia came out during the ultimately successful campaign to recall California governor Gray Davis in autumn 2003. A popular public gripe was that the embattled governor had appeased both employers and the more radical Hispanic politicians of the California legislature on illegal immigration. And indeed Davis had signed legislation allowing driver’s licenses for illegal aliens that both houses of state government had passed. So it was no wonder that the book

[AliVeritas]

ping

[Inspectorette]

BTTT

[PGalt]

Another outstanding article by VDH. Thanks for posting. Ping.

[visualops]

Spot on.

[kellynla]

Well, I won't say I told you so but back in 2003 I said that RINOld couldn't be a social liberal and a fiscal conservative at the same time;
ya gotta pay for all those programs somehow.

And where are all the RINOld fan club FReepers who voted for this clown?

No where to be heard from.

[Clemenza]

As an outsider, I always find it interesting that the Central Valley has WAY more Mexicans than the bay area (or so it seems), yet still votes much more conservatively.

[freespirited]

These class divisions cut both ways, and they help explain the anomaly of the Wall Street Journal op-ed page mandarins echoing the arguments of the elite Chicano studies professors. Both tend to ridicule the far less affluent Minutemen and English-only activists, in part because they do not experience firsthand the problems associated with illegal immigration

Exactly. There is no MS-13 activity in the tony neighborhoods where the illegal-loving talking heads live--at least not yet.

[texastoo]

The largest demonstrations—held on May Day, with thousands of protesters waving Mexican flags and bearing placards depicting the communist insurrectionist Che Guevara—only confirmed to most Americans that illegal immigration was out of control and beginning to become politicized along the lines of Latin American radicalism. I chronicled in Mexifornia the anomaly of angry protesters waving the flag of the country they vehemently did not wish to return to, but now the evening news beamed these images to millions. In short, the radical socialism of Latin America, seething in the angry millions who flocked to support Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Mexico’s Andrés López Obrador, had now seemingly been imported into our own largest cities.

This is what we have imported. As I understand it we are to have another communist march from these illegals this spring. Remember to thank the "conservative PAN Party" of Calderon and Fox. While you are at it thank G. Bush.

[wizr]

I am an Anglo male who grew up in SoCal and, to me, we were all equal at that time. I ain't the color of the skin, but the heart, that counts.

Now, walking through streets and stores of Cal it's fairly easy to spot the illegals. Most speak Spanish exclusively and act guilty, which they are.

Sneaking across a border to live illegally, is not only illegal, it's sinful. In taking rights that do not belong to you, and using funds which you have not helped build, should be illegal, and recognized as immoral.

God gave me no right to steal from others. He gave no one else the right to take what is mine. What they sow, so shall they reap.

My humble opinion only.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Little Ray]

Dunno why he thinks there is a "rightward shift" in the debate. The "debate" is over - the illegals have all but won...

Two weeks ago, my wife took my father-in-law to the hospital after a bad fall on his sailboat. The emergency room was full - mostly of folks using using the ER as their "primary care" physician (for which they had no intention of paying...). Apparently strep throat was going around.
She busted in line by telling the nurse that her father was having a heart attack and needed to be triaged immediately... Justified since it turned out he had five broken ribs and a punctured lung.

[rellimpank]

--I agree--having been to the local clinic lately--(Pahrump, NV)--then Congress is going to remove any impediment to them voting in 2008, so it's over---

[Inspectorette]

Hopefully you won't have an emergency like this again, but if you do, call an ambulance rather than driving the person to the hospital. The patient will have a much better chance of getting immediate attention.

This is especially true if you suspect a heart attack. I can personally attest to this - I had a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest twice in the ambulance on the way to ER. The EMTs (true heroes) defibrillated me. If I had been driven to the hospital, I wouldn't be here to post this.

[Malesherbes]

NAFTA, which was supposed to elevate the Mexican economy, contributed toward its wreckage and the outflow of the population. NAFTA was conceived by Bush Sr. and pushed through Congress by Clintoon. Now, Hillary explains that "my husband inherited NAFTA from Bush" and "we should learn from our mistakes."

But what's done is done, and the governing elites, both Dim and Republican, want it this way. The object is a North American economic entity with open borders (Wall Street Journal.) When the only consideration is economic, that becomes virtually a Marxist analysis (whatever it may be called.) The political and social consequences are ignored, and they will not be pretty.

[SoCalPol]

Thank you for the ping.
Hanson's articles are always great, have several of his books.

The people who don't want to hear about the illegals or think they are no real problem are no better than those who support the Islamofascists.
They are both trying to destroy our country.

[Paul Ross]

The growing national discomfort over illegal immigration more than four years after “Mexifornia” first appeared in City Journal is not only apparent in the rightward shift of the debate but also in the absence of any new arguments for open borders—while the old arguments, Americans are finally concluding, really do erode the law, reward the cynical here and abroad, and needlessly divide Americans along class, political, and ethnic lines.

Bump! VDH sums it up, and brings it home.

The bankruptcy of the Administration Multiculturalism and "laissez faire" border non-enforcement should be evident to all but the most hard-core liberals.

[RobRoy]

I ALWAYS call southern California "Northern Mexico". Anybody that spends a lot of time there, but lives in another part of the US knows exactly what I am talking about.

[Kenny Bunk]

I'd like to ask Victor, "what's the difference if you want 'Mexifornia,' or not?"

Either way, we got it.