Showing posts with label illegal immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illegal immigration. Show all posts

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Immigration, Migration, Politics and Policies

By Alan Caruba

When early humans got the hang of walking upright, the first thing many did was to walk out of Africa and, eventually, to all parts of the Earth from Asia to Europe, to North and South America, proliferating into different races.

Always restless to see what was over the horizon, they populated continents. There will shortly be seven billion of us on planet Earth, an extraordinary number and one with considerable consequences regarding issues of food, water, housing, transportation, trade, and energy.

In terms of our DNA, we are all one big family, closely and uncomfortably related to chimpanzees. A look back at the past five thousand years we call civilization reveals that, in addition to developing agriculture, building cities, and establishing trade, we have never stopped engaging in wars great and small.

In good times we reproduced like rabbits. In bad times, we gathered around the fire and hoped the food would hold out. Many packed up and went someplace else, anywhere else.

America is not called a nation of immigrants for nothing. Aside from the native tribes that were here for centuries, it was waves of immigration, first from Europe and then from everywhere else, that created the most unique citizen on planet Earth, the American. The lure was a fairly scarce commodity in the world, freedom and opportunity.

Anyone who takes an interest in demography, the study of the changes in age, birth and death rates, and racial identity, knows that the pressures of population and events cause people to move from nation to nation or, in our case, state to state. To an extraordinary degree migration has shaped history.

The United States is home to approximately 311 million people, natural born and immigrants, legal and illegal. In 2012, issues surrounding illegal immigration will be a factor in selecting candidates. The decision by Texas Governor Rick Perry to become a Republican candidate for President has required him to explain his state’s policies, but in truth many states are wrestling with growing illegal immigrant populations.

Data released by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) are extremely useful in understanding what is occurring now and how it will affect the future of America. It is culled from Census Bureau data.

Knowing how many people reside in the nation is incorporated in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 2. “(An) enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.” The composition of the House of Representatives depends on such information.

The CIS reports that “the nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 40 million in 2010, the highest number in American history. Nearly 14 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) settled in the country from 2000 to 2010, making it the highest decade of immigration in American history.”

“The nation’s immigrant population has doubled since 1990, nearly tripled since 1980, and quadrupled since 1970 when it stood at 9.7 million.”

The following states saw significant increases between 2000 and 2010: Alabama (92%), South Carolina (88%), Tennessee (82%), Arkansas (79%), Kentucky (75%), North Carolina (67%), South Dakota (65%), Georgia (63%), Indiana (61%), Nevada (61%), Delaware (60%), Virginia (60%), and Oklahoma (57%).

States with the largest numerical increase over the last decade were California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Overall, the immigrant population grew by 28% between 2000 and 2010.

The U.S. is going to add “roughly 30 million new residents each decade for the foreseeable future.” Americans in recent times have been struggling with immigration policy in earnest since the 1980s, debating amnesty for those here illegally, struggling to deal with the impact of more children in our schools, the need for more housing, more congestion on our highways, crime, and more competition for jobs.

The CIS estimates that every ten years America will need to build and pay for 8,000 new schools. It will need to develop land to accommodate 11.5 million new housing units and construct enough roads to handle 23.6 million more vehicles.

By mid-century, racial and ethnic minorities will become the majority population in America. More minority babies are being born, outnumbering the white population which is aging. A look back tells us that, in the past, it was the Italians, the Irish, the Russians, the Germans, and others who were the “minority” populations.

Immigration and in particular illegal immigration will force Americans to focus on these changes. As governor of a major border state, Perry is correct when he says “the federal government has failed in its basic duty to protect our borders. States are forced to deal with illegal immigration issues.”

In 2010 Latinos accounted for 65% of Texas’s population growth over the past decade. They are excellent citizens, no less than previous immigrants who came here. There’s a bit of irony insofar as Texas used to belong to Mexico, but so did California and much of the Southwest. .

Predictably, some politicians will demagogue these changes, but the nation must address them in a sensible way recognizing that while we need to stem the illegal flow across our southern border, there is a wealth of brains and talent eager to legally immigrate to the United States from around the world and studies demonstrate they bring innovation and job creation with them when invited to share the American dream.

And then there is the reality of those who are already here. We cannot wish away millions of illegal immigrants. We cannot wish away their children. For now, the states affected are seeking their own solutions in lieu of the failure of a federal government that has not addressed border security in a serious way.

The issues surrounding immigration are as old as the nation and the world. People, as always, are on the move and a lot of them want to live in America.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Monday, October 3, 2011

Gov. Christie Should Not Get in the GOP Race


By Alan Caruba

Does anybody recall the frenzy surrounding the question of whether Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Fox News host of his own show, would toss his hat in the ring and seek the GOP nomination?

That same frenzy is occurring now regarding New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and, as a lifelong citizen of the Garden State, I would bet a bushel basket of its excellent tomatoes that he will not.

Why? Because he says he will not and I believe him.

There are, however, a lot of other very good reasons why he won’t plunge into the political maelstrom that is our system of selecting a presidential candidate.

If Gov. Christie were to announce as a candidate for the GOP nomination his brief record while Governor would come under intense examination and it would reveal that he is not the conservative savior that many perceive.

Putting aside his great rhetorical gifts, his no-nonsense approach to answering questions in town hall meetings and interviews, his saving sense of humor, and other attributes that have generated the appeals from some party insiders and members of the public, Christie is conservative-light.

Candidate Herman Cain, speaking on Fox News Sunday, has done his homework. According to an October 3 article in the Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest circulation daily newspaper, Cain noted that “Christie is far too liberal on gun control, climate change, same-sex unions, and immigration to satisfy Republican voters.”

Nor has his record as Governor gone unnoticed on the left. “Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland blasted Christie’s stewardship of New Jersey’s economy. He cited the state’s unemployment rate, among the highest in the country at 9.4 percent, and a series of downgrades to New Jersey’s bond ratings this year from the top credit rating agencies.”

None of these economic factors, unfairly attributed to Gov. Christie or not, bodes well for a run for the presidential candidate nomination. When one adds in the lateness of such an effort and the difficulties of raising huge sums of money for the campaign it suggests that such a move would not turn out well for him.

There is no question that Gov. Christie, a former U.S. District Attorney for New Jersey, has earned the gratitude of the state’s citizens for taking on the civil service unions that have bled it dry with cushy contracts featuring handsome pension and healthcare plans. Beyond that, however, many Garden State conservatives have winced to see his decisions in other areas of concern.

Many applauded his decision to withdraw the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that would have required that a percentage of energy serving New Jerseyeans come from “renewable” sources, wind and solar power. However, in August Gov. Christie signed an act that would facilitate offshore wind power for use in the state. Had he signed an act to permit offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, the state and the nation would have been far better served. Wind power would only increase the cost of electricity.

Moreover, Gov. Christie is on record saying that climate change is “impacting our state.” This is a position that is 180 degrees from a town hall meeting the previous year when he declared himself skeptical that climate change is the result of human activity. He was right then, but has been getting very bad advice from his science advisors since then.

As a former U.S. District Attorney, it should come as no surprise that he supports a ban on assault weapons. Despite opposing a law that limits the purchase of hand guns to one per month, his newly appointed state Attorney General took an aggressive legal position to defend the former governor’s law. Gov. Christie favors gun control, a position that will not find favor among lawful gun owners and sportsmen.

Gov. Christie is squishy on the issue of illegal immigration, hewing to the liberal line that those who enter the nation illegally are simply “undocumented.” He regards state-by-state laws regarding illegal immigrants to be “a federal problem” that needs a “federal fix…I am not really comfortable with state enforcement having a big role.” Suffice to say that New Jersey, like other states, has a big illegal immigrant population.

If the Governor were to hit the campaign trail with a record like this, the other candidates would have a field day and many conservative voters would have second thoughts.

In sum, he needs to review and reinforce his conservative credentials and the 2012 race is far too soon to do that. Selfishly, I want him to remain the Governor and to serve a second term. Realistically, I think he would be torn to shreds if he got in now.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Editor's Note: On Oct 4, Gov. Christie announced he will not get in the race.

Monday, June 13, 2011

If Elected (A Fantasy)


By Alan Caruba

I suppose we all wonder what we would do if elected President of the United States. In the run-up to the 2012 elections we will first have the primaries in which the candidates seek the nomination of their party.

It will be easier on Democrats because no one expects Barack Hussein Obama to face any opposition. That’s good news for the Republicans because there hasn’t been a President this incompetent since Jimmy Carter and never one as malevolent.

The Republicans have a surfeit of rather good candidates from which to choose. I do not agree with everything each one says and I have some concerns about some of the positions some have already taken, but the only way to keep the nation from being deliberately destroyed by progressive policies and legislation will be to remove Democrats and RINOs from office.

Twenty-six States have joined in a court case against the implementation of Obamacare and the House of Representatives has voted to repeal it. It was, if you recall, the central focus of Obama’s first two years in office. During those two years unemployment increased and the value of the dollar declined. He didn’t take notice until it came time to run for the office again. Famously, he called them “bumps in the road.”

So, if elected, what would I do? Here’s my fantasy!

I would make shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency a priority. It is a rogue agency that appears to think it is not accountable to Congress or the American people. It is filled with fanatics who have no regard for real science. It is costing the nations jobs and thwarting our energy needs. If I was President there would be no further mention of “global warming” or “climate change.” The climate is always changing; it’s called “the seasons” or “warming and cooling cycles.” There will be no regulation of carbon dioxide. That’s a scam.

I would shut down the Department of Education next. This department has almost single-handedly destroyed education in the nation, depriving all those passing through the government schools of knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and how the nation is governed. It has foisted “fuzzy” math on them. Mostly, though, teachers have been told they are “agents of change” responsible to indoctrinate students with liberal views including the odd notion that they can choose their gender and should be taught homosexual practices.

I would begin to strengthen our defense capability because we are going to need a larger navy, an Air Force with newer fleets of aircraft, and other improvements in an age of digital warfare. At the same time, I would begin to draw down the large numbers of troops still in Afghanistan and Iraq. Let them fight their own terrorists. If Iran continues to make threats, I would light up the skies over military and nuclear facilities in a fashion comparable to the elimination of Osama bin Laden. It would be quick and lethal.

I would install a missile shield in Poland as formerly promised, provide military assistance to Israel and make it known that a threat or an attack on Israel will be regarded as an attack on the U.S.A. We offer this protection to Taiwan, as well as Japan and South Korea.

I would restructure the Department of Homeland Security and put someone serious in charge. Currently it is just a monstrous bureaucracy. Those airport pat-downs would be among the first programs to go.

I will make it known to the Department of Energy that I want more energy, not less. Therefore I want to see permits being issued for exploration and extraction of oil, natural gas, and coal. I like coal-fired plants that generate electricity. I like nuclear power. I like pipelines to ensure we get what we need when we need it.

I would build a tall fence between the United States and Mexico. Even though we are economic partners in many ways, it has long been Mexico’s policy to send its people north so they can take jobs from Americans and send money back to Mexico. That has to stop along with the wholesale invasion of our nation. Illegal aliens would be told they have six months to either apply for naturalization or go home. No more free schooling, hospitals, and welfare.

I would withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations. I would tell the UN to find new headquarters elsewhere. As corrupt as it was under Kofi Annan, it is even worse under Ban Ki-moon, the latest Secretary General.

I would cut the individual and corporate tax rates so people have more of their own money to spend as they wish, save or invest. I would create a commission whose mission is to identify regulations that need to be ended. And, yes, I would restructure Social Security and Medicare so they don’t go broke.

All federal departments and agencies would see their budgets reduced and there would have to be a reduction in force across the boards. The government is simply too big and wastes money like a demented Willy Wonka candy factory. The savings would be plowed back into debt reduction. And, while I was at it, I would put the U.S. back on the gold standard. Right now our dollars are based on nothing but a promise.

I could go on, but I promise I will not take up golf, though I am likely to install a pool table in the West Wing.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Multicultural Suicide

By Alan Caruba

In his famed poem, Mending Wall, the American poet, Robert Frost chided the rock wall that he and his neighbor would mend each spring, replacing fallen rocks. “He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

You can see the Great Wall of China from outer space. It is an astonishing piece of work

Begun in the fifth century B.C. and added to by later dynasties, it succeeded in defending China from invasions by northern tribes. In 1600, it helped the Ming dynasty defend against the Manchu, but when the gates at Shanhaiguan were opened in 1644 by a dissident Ming border general, the Manchus quickly seized Beijing and that was the end of the Ming dynasty.

There has been a growing call for a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico. Given the way Mexico has fallen into a state of barbaric anarchy by warring narcotics gangs, including increasing murders of Americans foolish enough to go there, it is a very good idea.

There are currently an estimated twelve million Mexicans and “other” illegal aliens residing in the United States, enjoying many benefits. Instead of aggressively dealing with the problem, the government under several administrations and the current one has opted to offer “amnesty” and grant them a citizenship they have not earned and do not deserve in the context of our laws.

The only thing these amnesties managed to accomplish was to encourage more millions of illegal aliens to cross our borders, to stay on beyond their visas, and to otherwise flout our immigration laws. They are not “undocumented”. They are criminals.

Naturally, when British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently gave speeches or expressed their opposition to “multiculturalism”, it made news when it turned out they were appalled by the failure of this idiotic concept. Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had already expressed that opinion.

There was a time when someone was proudly British, French or German. Today, their distinctive cultures are being hollowed out by waves of immigrants who have no desire to assimilate or adopt the values of their new homelands.

All of which raises the question of why, here in America, you have to “press one” to conduct a conversation in English, Islamic foot baths have been installed in the Kansas City airport, why ‘Islamic immersion’ classes have been inflicted on children in a California school district, there was a demand an Arabic public school in New York and a mosque within sight of Ground Zero, and why government documents are often printed in foreign languages.

The victory over Europe that the Muslims could not achieve by invasion and which ended with the defeat of a Muslim army outside of Vienna on September 11, 1683, has been achieved by a constant flow of immigrants from the Middle East and northern Africa as Europe opened its doors because their indigenous populations failed to reproduce in enough numbers to maintain their economies.

It is a principle of demographics that, as a nation becomes more prosperous its population tends to replace itself more slowly. Birthrates in America across the racial spectrum are in decline, reflecting those in Europe By contrast, places like China and India are where you find a billion or more people.

In 2008 Los Angeles County, population 10.2 million, was where 42% of workers were paid cash and did not pay taxes; 90% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; more than two-thirds of all births were to illegal aliens; nearly 40% of all inmates in California were Mexican nationals who were there illegally; and, nationally, while less than 2% of illegal aliens were picking crops, 37% were on welfare.

These and a mountain of other statistics testify to the failure of the American government to enforce its immigration laws and deter an army of illegal immigrants from invading the nation.

The argument will be raised that America is “a nation of immigrants”, but that was then and this is now. The earlier flow of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Germany and Russia were needed in the 1800s to provide workers for the nation’s industrial base and as farmers for its expanding land mass. And they were white and Christian.

The importation of Afro-Americans as slaves, starting early in America’s history, led to the Civil War, followed by the horrid “Jim Crow” era until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. These days they are minority population smaller than Hispanics and, thanks to a variety of liberal welfare programs, are too often a dysfunctional element of American society.

There is an unrelenting tyranny to demographics; the statistical study of migrations and birth rates of peoples throughout the world. Unless Europe and America address it, putting the breaks on further immigration, they are at risk of falling prey to it and failing as a result of it.

England, France and Germany’s leaders have finally begun to speak out about and against it. It may be too late. America refuses to even acknowledge it.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Our Stealth Congress


By Alan Caruba

We are living in an era in which our Congress and much of our government operates like a stealth bomber, destroying rights we assume to be protected by the U.S. Constitution and otherwise encumbering an ailing economy in ways known to make it worse.

Take, for example, the House passage yesterday of the Dream Act, an end-run around the widespread opposition to any form of amnesty for the problem of illegal immigration. While 38 Democrats joined Republicans to vote no on the measure, eight Republicans “crossed the aisle” to support Pelosi, Reid and Obama. The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure on December 9 and it is widely predicted it will fail in that chamber.

Even a massive rejection by the voters appears to have made no impact on the Democrat Party which gives every indication of not giving a damn about We the People even when a million showed up in Washington to protest Obamacare. One is reminded of Speaker Pelosi’s now classic statement that we would have to wait to find out what is in the Obamacare legislation until after the vote was taken.

The result is an increasing number of waivers from aspects of this noxious law for unions, fast food chains, and others to ensure their members and employees do not lose health insurance. This from a bill we were told would extend health insurance to thirty million more Americans.

So the Democrat majority, most of whom did not even bother to read the 2,000-plus monstrosity, voted to have the government take over one-sixth of the nation’s economy and destroy the patient-doctor relationship and just about everything else that made our health system the best in the world.

While Americans were making plans for Christmas and beginning to feel the sting of winter as far south as Florida, Congress voted to approve the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a government created entity that will impose huge tax increases on companies in the northeast in the name of preventing a “global warming” that is not happening.

RGGI is the nation’s first mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) cap and trade regulating entity even though the Cap-and-Trade Act is all but dead in the Senate. Everyone living in ten northeastern states will see their electricity bills soar due to caps on how much GHG their utilities and other major manufacturing facilities emit. This is, I would remind you, is occurring in the midst of the worst recessionary period since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

This is equivalent to the creation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government entities that created the housing bubble that led to the 2008 financial crisis.


The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) is concluding its latest and hopefully last conference in Cancun, Mexico, desperately trying to save the Kyoto Protocols. Widely seen as the end of the “global warming” hoax, the UN is far from finished trying to impose its will on the United States and other nations.

As this is written, the Obama administration is trying to get the U.S. to ratify the UN Small Arms Treaty. This is a major goal before it folds its tent in 2012. If the Senate were to ratify the treaty, some 90 million Americans would be required to turn in any banned firearms to local government “collection and destruction” centers. It would prohibit firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling their products to Americans. In short, it would negate the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”

This is yet another stealth effort to undermine the U.S. Constitution, along with all the talk about putting government limits on Internet use and dangerous babble coming out of the FCC to impose a “value” system to determine what radio and television stations can report as news.

As this is written, Americans are still waiting to learn whether their taxes will rise or whether tax rates that have been in place for a decade will be extended. Even so, the President claimed that it was the GOP that was holding Americans “hostage.”

“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance” is not a cliché. It has never been more true than our present times.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Obama's News Conference: Blah, Blah, Blah


By Alan Caruba

5/27/10 - The President, after a lapse of 309 days, held a news conference Thursday. It came shortly after news that earlier in the day the director of the Mineral Management Service, Elizabeth Birnbaum, had either resigned or been fired. Obama professed to not know the circumstances. Yeah. Sure.

What we do know is that Obama’s method of dealing with a news conference is to talk each question to death. In addition, he makes sure that we all know that, no matter what the problem under discussion, it was all George W. Bush’s fault.

Watching Obama’s head swivel back and forth between the TelePromters as he read his opening prepared statement for the first fifteen minutes or so was mildly comical and it occurred to me that he has become a real life parody of a Saturday Night Live parody, the latter of which is at least entertaining.

The press conference was devoted largely to blaming oil company, British Petroleum, for the mess while, at the same time, saying that “BP is acting at our direction.” This is known as having it both ways. Somehow, knowing that the federal government is in charge is not all that reassuring. And, of course, the real problem began “under the previous administration.”

The president then used one of his snore-inducing answers to segue to the usual blather about a “clean energy” economy. This is pure fiction. America and the rest of the advanced nations of the world depend entirely on oil, natural gas, and coal. Long after all of us and our grandchildren are dead these hydrocarbons will still be used.

By then, however, Obama’s nonsense about clean energy jobs will have been long forgotten. They don’t exist now and they will not until the last drop of oil is extracted, the last cubic meter of natural gas, and the last lump of coal is dug from the ground. Wind and solar energy is largely a huge fraud based on the even bigger fraud of “climate change.”

And of course the President took the opportunity to push the legislation before the Senate that would put the federal government in charge of who gets energy, how much they get, and how much they will pay for it. Using the bogus claim that carbon dioxide is a threat to human life the EPA is currently trying to gain control all energy use. Cap-and-Trade, a huge tax, would destroy what little hope is left for the economy to recover.

The highlight of the conference for me was when the insane old crone, Helen Thomas, asked about Afghanistan after Obama had seemingly exhausted the subject (and the audience) on the topic of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster.

Later questions dealt with the Arizona law and the White House criticism of it and border security. Obama used them to push amnesty for illegal aliens without actually saying amnesty. Meanwhile, more and more states are fashioning their own version of the Arizona bill in lieu of the federal government’s failure to stop illegal aliens. Amnesty is a strictly Democrat “answer” to the problem.

Responding to a question about the oil spill, the President earlier had said, “I intend to use the full force of the government to protect our fellow citizens” on the southern state borders affected by the spill. One could only wish that he had the same resolve regarding the thousands of illegal Mexicans and “others” that continue to pour across.

The issue of a possible White House bribe to a candidate to drop out of the Pennsylvania primary race got danced away with the usual assurances from what we were told was going to be the most transparent White House ever.

I feared for my sanity after an hour and stopped watching and listening.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Taking a Whack at Arizona



And you thought the real problem was illegal aliens entering the US?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Thinking About Mexicans


By Alan Caruba

For some time now friends have been asking me why I haven’t written anything about the Arizona law, amnesty, illegal immigration, and Mexicans.

The problem with trying to see all sides of the problem is that, sooner or later, you have to pick a side. That is what Americans are doing in light of the recent law passed in Arizona; a law that mirrors a federal law that, quite simply, is not being enforced.

What exactly were Arizonans expected to do in light of the fact that their border with Mexico is now a war zone?

A typical bachelor, I pretty much have the same thing for lunch every day, a soft tortilla in which two thin slices of smoked turkey are placed. Thirty seconds in the microwave and about six bites later lunch is over. And every day I look at that damned tortilla and I think about Mexicans.

Not Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world, but those poor souls trekking across deserts or sneaking in any way they can because, presumably, Mexico sucks so badly that their only hope is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

There are a number of factors that encourage Mexicans to come here, not the least of which is that their per capita income is about one-third of that in the U.S. Mexico has always had an oligarchy of families that controlled the bulk of the money there and, on top of that, there are the drug lords whose income allows them to corrupt those in government positions and to kill those who oppose them.

President Felipe Calderon has made strides to improve the economy which has largely depended on its national oil company, tourism, and the billions in remittances sent home by those illegally in the United States.

Trade with the U.S. and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 and with forty trade agreements with other nations. There are an estimated 46.1 million in its labor force. Nearly 60% are in the services sector, 25.7% are in industry, and 15.1% are in agriculture. Overall, 18.2% live below the poverty level and, in terms of their personal assets, 47% can be defined as poor.

A growing amount of agricultural harvesting in America is mechanized, but I have heard estimates that up to 80% depend on farm labor to do the hard work of picking produce. The Mexicans who cross the border often seek to make enough to send money back home and return there. Others decide not to return. A simple guest worker program is needed and long overdue. Agriculture is a huge part of our national GDP.

Arizona arrived at its decision to deal with its illegal immigration problem because of a dramatic rise in crime of every description. It did so because the federal government has paid lip service to protecting its and the other 2,000 miles of our southern border. Rasmussen Reports indicate that 59% of those polled support Arizona’s action.

What has myself and many other Americans thinking about Mexicans who are here illegally is as much a question of their attitude as of statistics. These are people whose heroes are not George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or any other American icon. These are people who do not grow up celebrating the Fourth of July. National differences are important and should not be discounted.

Something is very wrong when illegal aliens, Mexicans and others from south of the border, feel empowered to march in the streets of our nation’s cities to demand instant citizenship. They have no right to be in the streets. They have no right to be in America.

Something is very wrong when America makes all manner of accommodation with what is essentially an invasion by millions of people who are here illegally.

The warnings against a bilingual society are based in the reality of how this undermines national cohesion. Generations of immigrants, including my own grandparents, learned to speak English. The provision of all manner of free social services costs taxpayers billions. It has distorted our educational and healthcare systems, and put an extraordinary burden on law enforcement and incarceration.

Americans are not opposed to legal immigration. They are opposed to a federal government that fails to meet its primary obligation to defend our borders and, by doing so, defend our native-born and naturalized citizens.

Politically, the current administration and the Democrat Party want to depict Republicans as racists because they want the Constitution and other applicable laws enforced. We need to see through this deception; a position designed to enhance their political power by luring Hispanics into their party by offering amnesty.

We tried amnesty in the past. It doesn’t just extend to those receiving citizenship for having broken our laws, it invites a new wave of illegal aliens. It is an extraordinarily bad idea and this is particularly true when the nation is in the midst of a financial crisis.

So, while I personally harbor no ill will toward Mexicans, I do oppose they’re being here illegally and I resent the resulting costs that must be borne by Americans. The problem is that there are anywhere from twelve to twenty million illegal aliens, including all such people, Hispanic and others, in the nation.

Other nations, including Mexico, have extremely harsh laws regarding illegal aliens. Unless and until the federal government begins to seriously enforce our laws, it puts our lives, our economy, and our nation at risk.

(c) Alan Caruba, 2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

Welcome to Montebello High School...in California!



Is it too much to ask why these students raised the flag of Mexico over the U.S. flag at their school?

Arizona Does What the Feds Will Not

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A Thousand Lies


By Alan Caruba

The question is, how long can a nation sustain itself when its president, its government, and its news media tell a thousand lies every day?

Americans are drowning in lies. The biggest lie is the budget, burdened with trillions in debt, and behind that are the virtually insolvent entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

Despite the judgment of legal scholars, the healthcare “reform” is unconstitutional and will be challenged in the courts by many of the States affected by it. These are, however, the same courts that have resisted addressing Obama’s eligibility to be president.

A thousand lies every day.

Americans must now get ready for a new flood of lies. These are already coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency, now completely in the control of radical environmentalists. The big lie is that carbon dioxide is a “pollutant” and, as such, can or should be regulated by the Clean Air Act. The EPA has already moved to increase its demand for more mileage from autos when it is common knowledge that lighter cars just mean more deaths from collisions. People will die.

So we are being lied to regarding entitlement programs, regarding the budget, regarding environmental issues, and then there is the biggest lie of all, that the man sitting in the Oval Office is a natural-born American citizen qualified under the terms of the Constitution to hold the presidency.

I spent decades since the 1980s being called a “denier” and a “skeptic” as I wrote repeatedly that global warming was a complete fraud based on bad science. In November 2009, leaked emails revealed it has been based on deliberately falsified data by a handful of British and American scientists colluding together to maintain the hoax.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been the vehicle for this fraud, but the president, members of Congress, and various U.S. agencies continue to speak of “climate change” as the code word.

Now I and many others are being derided as “birthers” because we know Barack Hussein Obama is not a natural-born citizen. The issue was important enough for a congressional hearing to determine if Sen. John McCain, born in Panama where his father was serving in the U.S. Navy, qualified as a natural-born citizen, but not for his opponent whose Kenyan grandmother says he was born there.

As Michelle Obama so eloquently said in a recent speech, “When we took a trip to Africa and visited his home country in Kenya…” Many Americans can claim a foreign heritage, but unless they are recent immigrants, they do not refer to their “home country” except in the past tense.

Then there is the question of why Obama would reportedly spend more than a million dollars in legal fees to ensure that his alleged Hawaiian birth certificate would remain, as it is, under seal. Almost anyone can find and produce their birth certificate with ease; anyone other than the man pretending to be president.

A thousand lies every day.

Meanwhile our southern border, long neglected as a route for illegal aliens and drug smugglers, worsens as word of increased murders drive some Mexicans to flee and seek asylum here and Americans living near the border to fear for their lives.

No word of any action regarding the 10 to 20 million illegal aliens living here except for the intention of the Obama administration to grant them all amnesty, the implications of which hold little good for the millions of native and naturalized Americans, an estimated 16 million of whom are currently unemployed or have given up seeking employment.

A thousand lies every day.

There are some signs of hope.

Newly minted Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown was elected because he told the truth.

The new Republican governors of Virginia and New Jersey were elected because they told the truth.

Four out of every ten members of the Tea Parties are self-identified Democrats and independents who joined because they want the truth and want an end the depredations of this administration. The majority of members are women, but the mainstream press continues to depict them as violent, racist vigilantes.

Neither the White House, the Congress, nor the arrogant press understand that it is their lies that will defeat them. They hold Americans in contempt, but Americans are determined to rid themselves of these liars.

In the meantime, though, Obama appoints hard-core socialists to positions of power throughout his administration.

This is a time in which courage is required until America can be saved by November’s midterm elections. Are Republicans perfect? No, but they are not socialists.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Mexico: The War Next Door


By Alan Caruba

It is amazing how little national coverage there is of the vicious drug wars next door in Mexico that are driving Mexicans across the Texas, Arizona and New Mexico borders to seek asylum under the threat of death for themselves and their families.

It is a war that now includes the murder of U.S. consulate staff and an American rancher. There are other casualties who have already fallen victim to murder and rape about whom the national media make little or no mention.

On April 1, The Washington Times published an excellent and extensive report on the border violence, written by Ben Conery and Jerry Seper. “For more than two years, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have been warning that the dramatic rise in violence along the southwestern border could eventually target U.S. citizens and spread into this country.”

The U.S. shares a 1,951-mile border with Mexico. It is so porous that millions of Mexicans and others from South America and the Caribbean have simply walked across while others are busy exporting drugs into the nation. Estimates of how many illegal aliens reside in the U.S. range between 12 and 20 million.

The rumors in Washington, D.C. are that the Obama administration wants to pass an amnesty bill granting instant citizenship to people who have illegally entered and live in the United States. A previous such effort during the last administration met with intense resistance that stopped the effort. The Obama administration, however, has demonstrated that it can and will ignore such resistance.

Why is this a very bad idea? On Sunday, April 4, William Booth of the Washington Post, writing from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, reported that “A cross-border drug gang born in the prison cells of Texas has evolved into a sophisticated paramilitary killing machine that U.S. and Mexican officials suspect is responsible for thousands of assassinations here, including the recent ambush and slaying of three people linked to the U.S. consulate.”

The gang, Barrio Azteca, “may have been involved in as many as half of the 2,660 killings in the city in the past year. Ciudad Juarez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. There are other such gangs employed by rival drug lords.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has said that the rising violence demonstrates the “abject failure of the U.S. Congress and President Obama to adequately provide public safety along our national border with Mexico.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry has instituted a “spillover violence contingency plan” that includes increased border surveillance, intelligence sharing, and ground, air and maritime patrols. An effort by Gov. Perry to secure help from the Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano (the former Arizona Governor) has met with failure.

It’s not just the border. The Washington Times report noted that in 2009, the Justice Department “identified more than 200 U.S. cities in which Mexican drug cartels ‘maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors’—up from 100 three years earlier.”

The Times further reported that the 2010 drug threat assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center described the cartels as “the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States.” Not only established in our cities, it is expanding into more rural and suburban areas.

The immediate question facing the U.S. government is whether to grant asylum to Mexicans streaming across the border. Given the millions of illegal aliens in the nation, this could potentially add hundreds of thousands more.

So the war next door will soon impact America in ways no one really wants to think about, at least at the White House level that is widely believed to see every illegal alien as a potential new Democrat.

This is not a problem that will go away. It is not a problem that is being vigorously addressed by the Obama administration. It will, as in the case of Ciudad Juarez, turn the streets of our cities into killing grounds, far worse than the barely contained mayhem that drugs presently represent.

The war next door has arrived.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Week's News Round-Up



By Alan Caruba

Week began, March 21, with a “March for America” by several thousand illegal immigrants and their supporters in Washington, D.C.

Congress passes massive, costly healthcare “reform” against the will of the people.

Nancy Pelosi turns 70 years old, Friday, March 26.

President Obama announces major reduction in U.S. nuclear missile arsenal; new treaty with the former Soviet Union.

Osama bin Laden announced that, if Khalid Sheik Muhammad, mastermind of the 9./11 attack, is given the death penalty, al Qaeda will kill every American it takes captive.

A South Korean naval vessel sinks off the coast near the border of North Korea; it is believed to have been torpedoed.

Death toll from Mexican drug wars goes up. U.S. couple, wife pregnant, staff at U.S. consulate in Mexico, are murdered.

Democrats and Republicans trade death threat accusations following Medicare vote.

President Obama holds closed-door meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu. Demands Israel stop building housing development in its own capitol.

The Congressional Budget Office released a report stating that President Obama’s 2011budget will generate $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next ten years, $1.2 more than the administration projected, raising the federal debt to 90 PERCENT OF THE NATION’S ECONOMIC OUTPUT BY 2020.

Week ends, March 27, with “Earth Hour”, an event sponsored by environmental organizations involving turning off all lights between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM. It is a tribute to the good old days before electricity.

Monday, March 22, 2010

America in Decline


By Alan Caruba

There are tipping points in people’s lives and in the life of a nation. More and more I am inclined to believe that America has hit a tipping point and that its decline has been in progress now since the end of World War II. How can that be? We were and are a superpower.

While it is true that we have the greatest military power in the world, it is equally true that many of the planes being flown were brought on line in the 1950s, despite the extraordinary aircraft such as the stealth bombers. When Russia can put in a $40 billion bid to build refueling tankers after a major U.S. aircraft firm dropped out of the process, you have to ask yourself whether something is terribly wrong.

Militarily, we have worn out our forces, many of which are National Guard units, with six years of conflict in Iraq and renewed conflict in Afghanistan. All the hardware needed to maintain our troops in conflict zones need replacing. And the President of the United States wants to sign a treaty to reduce our nuclear arsenal.

It goes even deeper, however, than the capacity to wage war, let alone the will to face off with our enemies. Since around the 1960s the nation’s education system has grown steadily more costly and steadily worse in its capacity to produce students with fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic. American students consistently score behind students in other nations. An educated workforce is essential to maintain excellence, let alone parity with other nations.

At the heart of the Medicare reform battle was a very simple fact. The current Medicare program is broke. The current Social Security program is broke. Most of the States in the nation are broke. America must borrow a billion dollars a day to maintain its huge entitlement programs. The interest on treasury notes alone is daunting. Expanding Medicare under such conditions is sheer folly.

The nation and the States have become slaves of civil service unions and their government employees now make more than those in comparable private sector positions. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees now represent 1.6 million workers. There are two million federal workers. The benefits that have been negotiated for these workers are extraordinary, particularly in the area of pensions. Many of the services they provide, other than police and fire, could be contracted to the private sector.

Unemployment continues to rise and the billions in “stimulus” programs are having no effect. The Federal Reserve continues to print money that will invariably have less value.

The exodus from States now famed for heavy taxation, California, New York, New Jersey, continues apace. The value of the nation’s housing stock continues to decline. Other States are becoming manufacturing wastelands as this essential factor of prosperity leaves the nation for others with less taxation and friendlier regulatory environments.

The other problem America has not addressed or solved is that of illegal aliens. There are differing estimates of how many reside in the nation ranging from twelve to over fifteen million. They represent a drain on education systems, medical facilities, receive a variety of social services, and crowd our prisons. Previous amnesties have only served to swell the numbers of those crossing illegally into the nation in hopes of more amnesties. The Obama administration is known to want yet another amnesty enacted.

Increasingly, parts of the nation’s economy have been absorbed into the government, the most outstanding example being the takeover of General Motors and Chrysler, and control of the financial sector through bailouts.

Huge tracts of land, often with significant natural resources, continue to fall under the control of the federal government while others ban any extraction of oil, coal or natural gas. In the energy sector, more than nine million jobs exist and millions more could if the government would permit further exploration and extraction. Meanwhile, offshore of Florida in Cuba, Russians and Chinese are beginning to develop oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Obama administration is totally devoted to the global warming fraud and the baseless assertion that human beings are influencing climate change through the generation of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide. The next major legislative initiation it proposes is the passage of Cap-and-Trade, a measure to impose the largest tax on the use of energy in the history of the nation.

At the same time, the electrical grid that is responsible for the distribution of energy has been aging and is in need of expansion. No new nuclear plants have been built since the 1970s and several are scheduled to be decommissioned. Nuclear represents twenty percent of the electricity used daily in the nation. The site in Nevada for the deposit of nuclear waste, built at the cost of billions, is still not open though it is ready to provide this necessary service.

The nation’s infrastructure of highways and bridges is in near desperate need of upgrade and continues to be neglected.

Nor should we ignore clear signs of moral decline as well. The abortion issue reflects the murder of millions of unborn babies. The push for same-sex marriage is a rejection of the ancient recognition that social stability depends on the marriage of a man and a woman. Pornography and violence permeate entertainment venues. Reality TV reflects the worst excesses of behavior. Illegal drugs are available anywhere in the nation.

The list of the indicators of decline is longer, but those cited are sufficient to suggest that an implosion is only a matter of time.

The truth that there is no free lunch remains in effect.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Haiti and other Hell-holes


By Alan Caruba

This is by way of just blowing off a bit of frustration in the wake of the non-stop news coverage of the latest disaster to hit Haiti.

To begin with, we are witnessing in this first day or so of news coverage that I call the "Five Known Facts" school of reporting; repeated endlessly!

That is to say, 98% of everything being "reported" is pure spectulation from the news room anchors and assorted experts, and the rest of the reporting is the most obvious stuff from the on-the-scene reporters. They are scrambling to say something more than just that hundreds, if not thousands, have died, buildings are destroyed, et cetera. We know that already!

It is the story of every major earthquake or comparable disaster anywhere.

For my part, however, it is a reminder that I have never heard anything about Haiti that was not a testament to the most vile aspects of despotism and corruption found in too many nations around the world.

How many millions have been poured into that chunk of Hispanola at this point? None of it ever reaches the people. None of it ever builds a road, a bridge, a school, or a hospital.

The minute Haitians can escape Haiti and come to America they become productive, wonderful citizens, but Haiti is a prison nation of no value to them or the rest of the world.

Haiti's current grief will be the focus of news organizations for perhaps two weeks at most. Forgotten or ignored is the way Haiti reflects comparable conditions in several African nations and elsewhere around the world where dictators continue to pillage whatever is of value and to oppress freedom.

Our attention span for such things is short and, if I dare to say so, America is in the early stages of becoming a failed nation, defaulting its debts, and rendering its dollar valueless.

The nation is being deliberately destroyed by Barack Hussein Obama and his cronies. That's why he doesn't care if he takes down the Democrat Party as well.

So, instead of really doing something about the rising unemployment occurring here, tending to the long-needed repair of our bridges and other infrastructure, cutting taxes so we can use our own money for our own needs, Americans blithly pass their time watching "American Idol" and discovering that yet another athlete is a failed human being.

Our Congress is no longer responsive to the millions of Americans, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, who hate the vile Obamacare program, something which the White House and Congress have wasted far too much time upon, given the fact that it is a hugely bad idea and occurring at the worst of times; wasteful and hurtful in more ways than one can count.

Is there death and destruction in Haiti? Yes. Will America do what it can to help? Yes. BUT! We have terribly serious problems here at home and, instead of solutions, we have been forced to deal with the failed ideology of socialism while abandoning the successful application of capitalist answers. The government will not let either Wall Street or Main Street function properly!

We need to stop beating up the bankers who were forced to make the bad loans and then to take TARP money. We need to stop kicking around the Wall Street crowd that risks billions to underwrite new technologies and help businesses and industries of every description grow and prosper.

The government must stop thwarting the building of more nuclear plants, more coal-fired plants, and the generation of the energy we will desperately need in the very near future. We need to Drill Here and Drill Now!

America is a treasure trove of coal, oil, and natural gas, but the government will not allow private industry to find it and extract it.

Do I feel bad about the Haitians? Sure, but five, ten, or twenty years from now they will still be wearing rags and living in shacks.

Right now, I want to avoid that future for more than 300 million Americans.

I want to stop the flow of illegal aliens draining our economy and using our services while contributing nothing in return. They have no right to be here. I want us to stop pretending that Islamists are not plotting to kill all of us and a nuclear Iran will give them the means to do it.

So, look at the television footage of the misery of the Haitians and think to yourself, unless we rid ourselves of those in power, fix our present economic problems without "bailing out" failed industries and financial institutions, and begin to prepare for the future, there but for the grace of God, go us.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

2010's Top Anxieties


The National Anxiety Center Lists Top Ten Fears

Founded in 1990, The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about “scare campaigns” designed to influence public opinion and policy, has periodically issued a list of the top anxieties Americans will experience in the coming year.

“The list,” says founder Alan Caruba, “is subjective; based on an analysis of the past year’s headlines and anticipated events. It incorporates on-going, often long term concerns that Americans have expressed.”

1. Out of Control Government Spending. It is evident to everyone except the White House and Congress that America cannot spend its way out of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, but both have embraced programs that will increase the level of taxation facing Americans, while engaging in “stimulus” programs that only stimulate more anxiety. The lack of job creation in the private sector will be the major anxiety Americans encounter in 2010.

2. Iran. It is evident to Americans and the world that Iran is intent on acquiring nuclear weapons that can be used in a missile attack on Israel and which can reach Europe and other nations throughout the Middle East. The only option available is an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and there is considerable anxiety regarding its timing and outcome.

3. Afghanistan War. Eight years after the initial effort to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban, Americans are war weary and increasingly wondering about the benefit of further involvement, its costs, and the possibility that leaving would embolden Islamist enemies there, in Iraq, and worldwide. The Middle East remains a powder keg of instability.

4. The Economy. There is anxiety concerning how long it will take for the American economy to recover from the housing and credit bubble created by Congressional programs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. No steps have been taken to eliminate these programs and, indeed, other federal programs have been introduced to assist imprudent mortgage holders already in default.

5. Inflation. The raising of the nation’s debt limit, the printing of vast amounts of paper currency by the Federal Reserve, and other comparable actions portend an inflation of prices and a possible default. Moody’s Investor Service has warned both the U.S. and British governments they are in peril of losing their triple-A ratings.

6. Medicare. Medicare, like Social Security, will be insolvent within a few years and Americans of all ages are worried, not only about solutions to this prospect, but about proposals to vastly expand Medicare at the most inopportune time.

7. Illegal Immigration and Amnesty. The drain on the nation’s economy and problems associated with illegal immigration, now estimated to number more than 12 million, as well as yet recently proposed amnesty program continue to worry Americans.

8. Education. The continued failure of the nation’s school systems to meet international standards of scholastic achievement has resulted in the decline in the ability of American’s children’s to acquire basic skills and the knowledge required to compete in a global economy.

9. Diet and Health. The growing number of overweight and obese Americans is a personal and national concern for the overall health of everyone struggling with weight problems and their potential for diabetes and other diseases.

10. American Culture. The increasing vulgarity found in films, on television, in music, fashion, and other elements of American culture remains a concern for many, particularly as it affects the younger generation.

“The good news is that more Americans are no longer concerned about global warming and carbon dioxide as they become aware that the claims justifying these fears are based on deliberately falsified computer models and the fact that the nation and the planet are now a decade into a natural cooling cycle,” says Caruba.

“2010, the end of the first decade of the 21st century, is likely to be seen in retrospect as a tipping point that will determine either a return to traditional standards of fiscal prudence,” says Caruba, “or will plunge the nation and the world into a Depression of cataclysmic proportions.”

The National Anxiety Center maintains a website at www.anxietycenter.com. Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

Monday, October 5, 2009

California, Watch Us Leave!


By Alan Caruba

A popular Al Jolson song when your grandparents were young began, “California here we come, right back where we started from.” For many of that generation, California was a land of golden opportunity, a destination for the “Okies” whose farms had succumbed to a long drought in the 1930s, and for all manner of people who saw it as a place to make a life and maybe even a fortune for themselves.

Now it’s a place that many are increasingly leaving. Between 2004 and 2008, more than a half million Californians left and for good reason.

It is a political, economic, and environmental basketcase. Very little about California seems to make sense and, despite public referendums reflecting the growing concerns of its dwindling population about illegal aliens and other issues, its legislature has reflected the U.S. Congress by being unwilling to stop spending money of every leftist cause imaginable.

Those days may be over. California is so broke that, at the start of the summer, it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. As a recent article in The Guardian, a British newspaper, points out, “Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave.”

“It is the eighth largest economy in the world, with a population of 37 million. If it was an independent country it would be in the G8. And if it were a company, it would likely be bankrupt.”

Part of California’s problems stem from its aggressive environmental programs that include the refusal to permit oil and natural gas exploration and extraction off its coast in recent years. Thousands of jobs and billions in revenue could have been created.

The most recent example of environmentalism destroying California’s economy is what Investors Business Daily describes as “the largest man-made agricultural disaster since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.” It stems from the application of an Endangered Species Act decision the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that denied water to the farms of the San Joaquin Valley to protect the habitat of the Delta Smelt, a small fish.

“To protect the smelt, billions of gallons of water from the mountains east and north of Sacramento have been channeled away from farms and into the ocean.” The Valley was one “the most productive agricultural region in the world.” This is a repeat of what occurred when water was shut off to the Klamath Valley, a farming region in southern Oregon.

Anyone who still doubts that the aim of environmental organizations is to destroy America’s agricultural and industrial base is simply not looking at the facts on the ground.

Because of environmentalism, Californians resisted building coal-fired and even nuclear plants to generate electricity for their economy, electing to purchase it from other States. What has followed since then have been periodic blackouts and brownouts. Californians still believe that solar panels and wind turbines will provide sufficient electricity, but that is a fantasy.

Companies that depend on a constant source of electrical energy decamped and moved to neighboring States and, of course, jobs went with them. The war on coal-fired plants nationwide will produce a similar result as companies leave for other nations seeking a dependable supply of energy and a corporate tax rate lower than America’s, currently among the highest in the world.

The other problem plaguing California is illegal immigration. American values that put a premium on volunteerism, neighbors, friends, faith, family and towns and cities with low crime rates, are causing Californians to leave. This is reflected in other areas of the nation overrun with illegal aliens and the costs they generate for educational and healthcare systems.

In a new book, “Searching for Whitopia” by Rich Benjamin, the author chronicles the flight of whites from cities and towns in decline.

“Whites, like Americans of all races, have felt pushed by stagnant job opportunities, pricey housing markets, congestion and traffic, crumbling public facilities and services, and neighborhoods that seem hostile to raising children. Quality of life and pocketbook factors matter greatly.” California is a case study in such flight.

“In one generation,” notes Benjamin, “between 1970 and 2006, the number of Mexicans in the United States increased more than tenfold, from 760,000 to 11.97 million. Ten percent of all Mexican nationals now live in the United States. One third of all foreign born persons in the United States are Mexican. Since the 1990s, 80 to 85 percent of newly arrived Mexicans have come here illegally.”

“Whitopia” is a coined word to describe an America that accepted and integrated populations from Europe and Russia in the last century. It refers to places around the nation where whites have moved in order to preserve their shared values.

As America continues its failure to stem the tide of illegal aliens and has given itself over to environmental attacks on the use of vast national reserves of coal, oil and natural gas to generate energy, the nation is experiencing what California has already demonstrated for all to see.