The school dropout rate in California is one in four and in LA one in three.
I read a stat a couple of years ago that revealed, of the adults working age men in Los Angeles city, less than 50% can read and write functional English.
How can we even look in the mirror knowing what we have allowed to happen to our nation?
This is the real immigration problem. When we had nearly unchecked immigration during the first 30 or so years of last century, the country wasn't a welfare state. The immigrants worked or they starved - most worked, but admittedly some turned to crime. All in all, that immigration boom was a benefit to the country.
Plus, there was a large "salt water guillotine" (as George Will puts it) that forced the Italians, the French, The Polish, the Irish etc. etc to assimilate. Now, with the acceptance of the Spanish language, the ubiquity of Spanish entertainment options and cheap and abundant travel back to their home country, the Latinos even in the second generation are not assimilating.
Although I'm not entirely pleased with some of the racial overtones of this debate, it's silly to think that the flood of immigrants under current conditions won't cause lasting harm to the Republic.