64% of California voters say illegal immigrants are major strain on state budget (poll, suspect)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
<delurking>
I've lived in both SoCal and NorCal, and I can attest to the fact that NorCal people are more PC/ textbook liberal, therefore not as anti-illegal immigration (at least publicly) as SoCal people. I'm a first generation, legal immigrant myself (as a child), and my views on illegal immigration have drastically changed these past few years due to working in healthcare.
Don't get me wrong, I care for all of my patients in the same manner, but I, along with some of my co-workers, just couldn't ignore the same patterns over and over again. Typically, the patient is an "anchor baby" born to illegal, single mothers or intact parents. This anchor baby is born with complex, CHD requiring multiple surgeries, which sometimes leads to further complications affecting other organ systems. It's not unusual to have a baby stay in the hospital from birth to 7-8 months of age, and even if the baby goes home, he/ she is frequently readmitted for respiratory issues related to the CHD. This baby is of course eligible for all the social services that California provides, not to mention disability benefits. Often, as the baby is readmitted for worsening of s/s relating to CHD or is readmitted for further surgeries, we find out that the mother is already pregnant, even as she and her family is unable to support their existing family.
I see sad and frustrating cases like this all the time at work, I'm an RN at a top children's hospital. I would say that in the past five years, the number of illegal immigrant patients or anchor babies have risen drastically. I don't have any kids, am single, and therefore pay more than my fair share of both state and federal taxes. California can only raise taxes on people like me for only so long, until we bolt from the state once and for all. Then, and only then will California be left with the people it so deserve to have as citizens: a bunch of non-contributing, overpopulating, benefit-demanding, uneducated freeloaders.
Welcome to the boards.. and Thank you for sharing your perspective from the front lines of the Illegal Immigration debate..
I am also a Californian (NorCal) who's views on Illegal Immigration have radically changed over the past few years.. I find it tragic that services are being denied to America's working poor due to Illegal Aliens abusing them..
<delurking>
I've lived in both SoCal and NorCal, and I can attest to the fact that NorCal people are more PC/ textbook liberal, therefore not as anti-illegal immigration (at least publicly) as SoCal people. I'm a first generation, legal immigrant myself (as a child), and my views on illegal immigration have drastically changed these past few years due to working in healthcare.
Don't get me wrong, I care for all of my patients in the same manner, but I, along with some of my co-workers, just couldn't ignore the same patterns over and over again. Typically, the patient is an "anchor baby" born to illegal, single mothers or intact parents. This anchor baby is born with complex, CHD requiring multiple surgeries, which sometimes leads to further complications affecting other organ systems. It's not unusual to have a baby stay in the hospital from birth to 7-8 months of age, and even if the baby goes home, he/ she is frequently readmitted for respiratory issues related to the CHD. This baby is of course eligible for all the social services that California provides, not to mention disability benefits. Often, as the baby is readmitted for worsening of s/s relating to CHD or is readmitted for further surgeries, we find out that the mother is already pregnant, even as she and her family is unable to support their existing family.
I see sad and frustrating cases like this all the time at work, I'm an RN at a top children's hospital. I would say that in the past five years, the number of illegal immigrant patients or anchor babies have risen drastically. I don't have any kids, am single, and therefore pay more than my fair share of both state and federal taxes. California can only raise taxes on people like me for only so long, until we bolt from the state once and for all. Then, and only then will California be left with the people it so deserve to have as citizens: a bunch of non-contributing, overpopulating, benefit-demanding, uneducated freeloaders.
A sad post, but interesting to read. This isn't the first time I've heard such 'horror stories' from those who have a 'front row seat' in the huge effect that this expense is having upon California.
I won't belabor the point, except to repeat as I just said on another thread...as a Californian, I don't know what the future holds, but I can promise you what you describe, above, will not continue. The state simply can not sustain this over the long haul.
California may turn into the nation's 'basket case' and need bailing out...(maybe we'll take the place of Mississippi)...or else draconian measures will be enacted FORCING an end to this...or the tax burden will simply become unsupportable, and businesses and taxpayers wil go elsewhere (as they already are, but in greater numbers).
But one way or another, what you describe above will NOT be able to continue indefinitely.
Stay tuned for further developments as the bankruptcy continues..
San Antonio does not have a lot of illegals. In so cal, you literally cannot get away from them. they are at the fast food restaurants, the public parks and beaches, hospitals, schools etc. i find them here and there in SA, but not enough to bother me. unlike ca, tx does not throw all kinds of benefits at the illegals other than the ones that the Fed requires.
In a very GENERAL way, you're quite right. For the WEALTHY people of Mexico..(those who actually run the place....reap the rewards...reserve the 'goodies' for themselves'....and wield the political power), illegal emigration...mostly to the US...has virtually NO negative consequences. It provides a VERY useful way to 'dump' the angry, the disenfranchised, and those 'left out', onto a benevolent 'babysitter' next door...the USA. It takes the pressure OFF the Mexican elite, and makes their lives much simpler.
In addition, the USA provides a convenient scapegoat...."don't blame the rich of Mexico for your bleak lives..blame the Yanquis". It also provides a HUGE souce of revenue to the Mexican economy, in the form of remittances sent 'home' by illegals. It lets the Mexican government show 'concern' for its people, when they frequently admonish the USA to "take better care of OUR people"..(the same people who left their country because IT didn't 'take care' of them).....and it's just a general, all-around "win-win" proposition for the elite 'ruling class' of Mexico. The 'race card'...the 'victim' card...the 'blame game'...and all SORTS of other benefits accrue to the 'ruling class' which really runs Mexico.
With all this in mind, why on EARTH would 'Mexico'...(as a nation) want to end illegal immigration? There's EVERY incentive to allow it to continue...and almost NO incentive to end it....except shame and embarrassment..(and good luck trying to push THAT)...
I'm not overly fond of the wealthy of Mexico -- but the middle class types are okay. I'm not sure I blame them too much for their poverty classes because public school is provided to all Mexicans and by now certainly most Mexicans should know of the many ways to limit family size and unwed birth.
What leads to poverty? Lack of education - but Mexico has schools but many parents don't believe school is all that important. Unwed teen pregnancy is another big reason for poverty, having kids when you have no way to support them. A machismo attitude that believes siring babies makes you studly but supporting them isn't necessary.
I'm not convinced that the wealthier Mexicans are really forcing teen pregnancy, illiteracy, sky high birth rate, drug use and alcoholism onto their impoverished fellow citizens.
In fact -- after watching how readily the Mexicans got out and protested everything here and to demand rewards for having broken the immigration laws, I blame the wealthier Mexicans even less.
What stops the same people from protesting and marching for their rights back in Mexico? They seemed very selfish because while demanding everything of the USA, they are accomplishing nothing for the folks back home. They aren't trying to make Mexico better, more just. Marching and protesting and throwing tantrums here is too easy, far easier than working for a civil rights movement in their own country.
So yes, they can blame their fellow Mexicans for all that is wrong in their lives, but the high welfare dependency, demand for free taxpayer provided health care, birth rates, and food stamps and free college education makes you less sympathetic.
Over half of Mexican girls in the USA have at least one baby before age 20, many have 3 or 4 children. That's not trying to improve yourself.
Sorry for the numerous grammatical errors in my post, I was typing so fast, plus I get quite irksome when venting some of the frustrations that I encounter. It's one thing to hear it debated by so-called academic experts or advocates, but it's really another to have to witness and experience the farce up close.
Quote:
California may turn into the nation's 'basket case' and need bailing out...(maybe we'll take the place of Mississippi)...or else draconian measures will be enacted FORCING an end to this...or the tax burden will simply become unsupportable, and businesses and taxpayers wil go elsewhere (as they already are, but in greater numbers).
There's a part of me that's secretly glad that our state's dismal financial status is on full display for all to see. I feel that this should be an eye opener for a lot of complacent Californians, as this is only the beginning of the end for a once great state unless we begin mobilizing for responsible immigration policies. Why should an illegal immigrant, single mother receive additional benefits for the second child she will give birth to in ONE calendar year, with no strings attached and no counseling of any type? Last week, I took care of a 7 months-old chronic patient on our unit (we call them frequent flyers), whose mother is doing exactly the same thing. She's due around November. She already has three kids, all different dads, she doesn't work and as far as I know isn't in school, yet she has the nerve to complain to the Spanish interpreter that the WIC and other freebies she gets from our government isn't enough to live on. She even said to me once that the reason she couldn't work is because she has kids to take care of. A pregnant co-worker overheard this and shot her a b**** please look.
Anyways, when a typical illegal immigrant mom is at the hospital with the baby, she gets free meals and sometimes free hotel stays via vouchers provided by our social workers. Meanwhile, I'm paying down my student loans and saving some money while taking classes for grad school, but when I see how our tax dollars are spent on certain leeches of society, well it can be quite disheartening.
I'm not overly fond of the wealthy of Mexico -- but the middle class types are okay. I'm not sure I blame them too much for their poverty classes because public school is provided to all Mexicans and by now certainly most Mexicans should know of the many ways to limit family size and unwed birth.
What leads to poverty? Lack of education - but Mexico has schools but many parents don't believe school is all that important. Unwed teen pregnancy is another big reason for poverty, having kids when you have no way to support them. A machismo attitude that believes siring babies makes you studly but supporting them isn't necessary.
I'm not convinced that the wealthier Mexicans are really forcing teen pregnancy, illiteracy, sky high birth rate, drug use and alcoholism onto their impoverished fellow citizens.
I'll be the first to agree that 'personal behavior' does have a profound effect on life success. Both here, and in Mexico, and I would imagine anywhere ELSE, early pregnancy, a lack of respect for education, and a general 'live for the present' attitude do NOT fit in with a successful life in a modern society.
I've lobbied long and hard on the forum in the past on the subject of 'culture', and have no desire to get back into any 'culture war'....but I will state that what we MOSTLY associate today with a free, rewarding, autonomous lifestyle involves adopting a 'middle class' (or ABOVE) set of values....and, as you've alluded, the small Mexican MIDDLE CLASS is doing OK...it's the poor who are in trouble...which is pretty much a parallel with what's happening here, in the USA...except that HERE, there a far fewer poor, and a far larger middle class (for now)....and OUR poor have 'nowhere to go'.
But in any case, it's true...you CAN'T have an antiquated, third-world, male-dominated, misogynistic, "macho" society AND, at the same time, a free, prosperous, dynamic, upwardly-mobile population. One OR the other must change. And that's true of any country. Most of the huge success of the USA as a world economy, in my opinion, is that traditionally we've had a HUGE middle class....as much as 80-85% of all Americans by some counts, WERE considered 'middle class'. That's now shrinking. If it does, we'll become more and more like the Third World.....
There are a LOT of dynamics working here regarding the 'behavior' and value systems of 'the poor' as opposed to those in the middle class..and these have a huge effect on how these groups "see" life...but again, I have no desire at this point to get into a 'cultural' argument. Suffice it to say that 'personal values' do have a huge effect on prosperity and success.
Sorry for the numerous grammatical errors in my post, I was typing so fast, plus I get quite irksome when venting some of the frustrations that I encounter. It's one thing to hear it debated by so-called academic experts or advocates, but it's really another to have to witness and experience the farce up close.
There's a part of me that's secretly glad that our state's dismal financial status is on full display for all to see. I feel that this should be an eye opener for a lot of complacent Californians, as this is only the beginning of the end for a once great state unless we begin mobilizing for responsible immigration policies. Why should an illegal immigrant, single mother receive additional benefits for the second child she will give birth to in ONE calendar year, with no strings attached and no counseling of any type? Last week, I took care of a 7 months-old chronic patient on our unit (we call them frequent flyers), whose mother is doing exactly the same thing. She's due around November. She already has three kids, all different dads, she doesn't work and as far as I know isn't in school, yet she has the nerve to complain to the Spanish interpreter that the WIC and other freebies she gets from our government isn't enough to live on. She even said to me once that the reason she couldn't work is because she has kids to take care of. A pregnant co-worker overheard this and shot her a b**** please look.
Anyways, when a typical illegal immigrant mom is at the hospital with the baby, she gets free meals and sometimes free hotel stays via vouchers provided by our social workers. Meanwhile, I'm paying down my student loans and saving some money while taking classes for grad school, but when I see how our tax dollars are spent on certain leeches of society, well it can be quite disheartening.
A moving post..and I don't want to get into a 'war' here, but when people COME from a place where they've never had any 'stake' in their own society..where they've never had the experience (nor has anyone they've known) of having any control over their own future, or their own circumstances...then they never question who 'pays for all this'..they just look at it as 'freebies'. The Third World poor are not people who are used to "doing things" to improve their lives (they don't have that option)...instead, they're people to whom "things are DONE..." by others, more powerful than they. They simply accept the bad, along with the good, without question.
When they get HERE, they simply accept the benefits as a 'given'. And they're not shy about demanding what they see as 'theirs'...because back home, if you don't look out for yourself, no one else will, either.
Life in the Third World is tough if you're poor. It takes a lot of boldness and a lot of 'pushing' just to survive, and if you don't look out for your 'own', nobody else will. When those values are transferred into an affluent, benevolent 'welfare state', like the US, the results are hardly surprising. And in THEIR eyes, it makes sense..because here, all that "pushing" pays off. We've allowed this circumstance to occur, and they are happy to take advantage of our "offer". In a sense, you could say they've simply intimidated us..(and it's working).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
