Illegal Immigration (My Personal Anecdote)

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I am taking a Chicano studies class. I came into the class reading about four books of required material. I used to support illegal immigration as I honestly believed it was not a net cost to the United States. I thought it was a humane, right thing to do. Based on the material I was presented in this class so far and my experiences growing up, I have to say this is a crisis.

I live in Southern California, and I am going to move as far North as possible once I graduate from here. I possibly might move to Seattle because they are heavily LGBT and utilize public transportation. I don't care if it rains 90 days straight. I need to get away from California as soon as possible.

I can safely say that the Southwest will one day became a territory of Mexico again due to the unresolved nature of the immigration crisis. It has effected me personally. This is mainly an anecdote of my neighborhood and town which changed from a solid middle class neighborhood to a sort of third world country within six years.

It is long, but please read this. I think everyone needs to realize what illegal immigration can do and the people it attracts to this country. It is a wake up call for people who might be on the fence on the immigration crisis.

I will lay it out here:

The illegals currently moving in do no even seek to go through the naturalization process. They used to, and they turned into very lovable, law respecting citizens. But now they are different. The newest illegals believe the Californian land is theirs even though it technically belongs to the Native Americans who were there before Mexico made it their territory and then the United States their own. They bring no respect for the law, and they do not watch their children and adolescents who proceed to get into a lot of trouble. There is a sort of low life mentality, and I see it rot the areas these people are moving into. The schools were great. The city was spotless. At first. Throughout the decade, as more illegal and undocumented works were coming in by friends/family and an indifferent local government, the schools quickly fell down and filled with students who hated education.

Crime rates in my neighborhood jumped through the roof. Trash was littered everywhere. Buildings had graffiti.

The African Americans whose socioeconomic condition was improving (which made me very happy) started to falter as undocumented workers worked for cheaper. Racial riots and tensions insured against the "blacks and Mexicans" for these lower paying jobs. As competition for these jobs grew as more illegal immigrants came, employers decided to pay hire these workers illegally. The wages became lower as they paid under the table and the building companies didn't have to pay as much in taxes and benefits.

African Americans, native Hispanics, and some whites were loosing their jobs or being paid lower wages when in the past they paid for more. Everyone tried to report it, but by then the local government had a Hispanic majority compassionate for the illegal workers. They did not investigate like they were supposed to.

People took pay cuts indirectly caused from the illegal hiring of undocumented workers, and so they couldn't pay as much in taxes to the city. Without that additional revenue, the city had to cut funding for the schools, the police force, and public works projects. Employment suddenly rose. The roads were incredibly bad. The cow crap from the farms littered the side of the streets instead of being picked up by the now cut waste removal service. It somehow seeped into the ground water and was starting to cause health concerns.

People who illegally immigrated were not properly vaccinated before coming into the country like they were supposed to. Whooping cough increased (not due to the vaccine thing), STDs shot through the roof. Also, teen pregnancies increased, the Welfare system started to drain, the school district's test scores dropped so low additional funding was cut, and crime increased even more as the police force was cut.

There was one couple who moved into a vacant house (which used to have an elderly couple who were so fed up they moved to Florida) who were on Welfare across the street from us. Neither herself nor the husband worked. The husband was able bodied and the economy was good enough for him to have something. All they did was sit in this beautiful house the elderly couple used to maintain. They bought a television, had the air conditioning running 24/7, had a little white dog, and had two kids with twins coming on the way. Eventually, they were told to move out since they no longer qualified for Welfare. The Welfare paid for the house so the couple had to leave. The husband refused to find a job. He was not taught to have a work ethnic in his native Mexico. They just left immediately to Mexico without notifying the bank they were renting the house from.

They also purposely left their little dog inside the house to starve to death. They wanted the dead body of the dog to stench up the house to "get back at losing their house". The dog was in a frenzy and cried endlessly on being left on its own without food, water, or any contact with a living soul. Oh, and the house was over 95 degrees in the day. The dog s**t and pissed all over the house which brought down the property price of the house down. My mom and I were told by the bank we were not allowed in the house to retrieve the dog as it wasn't our house. We were threatened to be sued if we entered. They needed the house unentered for their own personal investigation. It took two days for the animal shelter and the bank to work out an agreement to remove the dog. When it was removed, it's eyes were just void of life. It's body was listless. Sadly, I don't think the dog made it.

This story is not just experienced by us. There were other people who shared horror stories like our own about people renting homes previously owned by proud people who valued life, their property, and their freedom (who left because they were so fed up with what was happening). And then they suddenly left out of the blue to their native Mexico.

And I felt like I have never really belonged, and I had been segregated by my peers while going to a Hispanic majority high school. Even though I was very nice to them. They purposely refused to interact with me because I was the key example of "the oppressor".

I would use the English pronunciation of "San Jose" instead of "San Hose", and my peers refused to talk to me after that. I was marked down on my reading skills all the time, because I would mispronounce the Spanish names, places, events, and countries. I came from a household where we spoke English, and I had no natural exposure to Spanish. Students who spoke Spanish were not marked down for mispronouncing an English name, place, or event. In this way, I felt the multicultural education system failed me and discriminated against me.

If they can keep their culture, why can't I? It is my language and my culture. I pronounce "J" as "jay" and not "h". That should be respected. I respected theirs. So they get to keep their culture, but I am subtly forced to adopt theirs. Education in Hispanic majority schools isn't multicultural as the Chicano movement (who made the multicultural school) claims it to be.

I can safely say being a minority sucks no matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, Chicano, or any other group. I can sympathize more with minorities since I lived my childhood and adolescence as one.

With unchecked illegal immigration, asians, whites, blacks, and native Hispanics will eventually be discriminated against too.

I can now really say that unchecked illegal immigration does cause a third world. A tax based income and illegal immigration just do not mix. It all dries up. It is a personal experience and a personal warning.

how do you suggest we stop it? are you one of those build the damn fence people?

Move to seattle and then when the economy recovers, move to Portland. We have better beer, food, and better suburbs with cheaper housing and living costs. We are also GLBT friendly and a better public transportation system as well.

it isn't their land unless they were native californians that were kicked out and are returning to claim what they believe is there's. California was only Mexico's territory through spanish colonization and expansion. They had it for 15 years at most after they ousted Spain but it has since been in US control for almost 200 years now... California blossomed and Mexico is still a garbage dump of a mess save for a few beacons of hope where there is a manufacturing base, a quality standard of living, and a thriving middle class.

I would love to export a large chunk of the hispanic youth in this country back to Mexico. They are disgusting and depressing and have no respect for anyone, especially for authority that comes from a non-mexican. I've gotten in to a great many physical fights with a lot of them and feel hostility from their direction everytime I visit a jack-in-the-box in California and there's a group of them standing there with their stupid cholo outfits and blue bandana's. Forget looking at them wrong... just look at them period and it could be misread as diss and you will get shot up. They are in my opinion the cause of 40-60% of all hatred directed at mexicans.

I have sympathies for a great many older mexicans, they are hardworking great Americans who may be illegal but are the definition of what makes this country great. They make up the backbone of America and feed you with the food you put on the table or the food you get a restaurant. Good people, and many have been able to weather the hardship of coming up in a foreign land and making a life for themselves and their kids and entering the middle class.

Blacks have been affected badly. During the latter half of the 90's, the LA area became home to the fastest growing black entrepreneurial regions in the country, and blacks were making their way up. Which was a good thing, helped along by social policy such as affirmative action. Now, talk to a good many all over the bay area and either their an idiotic leftist and legitimize all of this by saying that we're all in this together and the government just needs to tax the rich to provide us jobs, or they, like the many bus drivers I'd listen to rant about the drying job markets, would acknowledge that they and their youth/children no longer have upward mobility because all of these low-paying or entry level jobs being taken by illegals.

The Republicans are at fault by allowing loose hiring practices to benefit business. NAFTA begin coyote capitalism wherein our cheaper subsidized corn put a good many of them in Mexico out of business. Pair their unempolyment with the availability of jobs up north, and markets that demand cheap labor, and you have what we have today. It's the Democrats fault for defending the crappy culture that comes with it. It's the conservatives fault for not making a reasonable policy to export them after Reagan and build a super wall guarded intensely and it is the liberals fault for everything else including defending them at every turn and making a system where it is so easy for them to fall through the cracks by not demanding we American-ify them culturally and make them all speak english. This is not a black and white issue. I myself don't even know how we can export 30 million people to another country and all the legal issues involved so I was thinking of one last amnesty bill, but make it strictly employment based and deport at least 10 million of them. Funny thing... California used to be desintation number one for illegals. Now it's too crappy a state with no jobs and is no longer a top destination for illegals.

forget countries and borders, no more immigration problem, easy.

I agree on the welfare part, I would take it further and say that they shouldn't be allowed access to any welfare or taxpayer funded services. The incentives to illegally immigrate need to be eliminated. Deporting everyone costs too much money so it shouldn't be used for the ordinary illegal but amnesty should never be considered. You can't allow people to cut in line, it undermines the whole system.

Also the US population would be right around zero growth if it wasn't for immigration. Global over-population needs to be dealt with by every country, for the USA to do it's part it just needs to control immigration.

I'm a native Californian. When I was growing up...everyone spoke English (for some, it was a bit broken). However, no matter where I am...most of the people here speak their native language whether it's an Asian dialect, Spanish, Hindi, or something else....I rarely hear English anymore. The majority here is Hispanic, but Asians are right behind them. It's a big problem because when everyone speaks only their own language, the melting pot ceases to be & people only want to co-mingle with their own. It's already starting to divide California. It's only a matter of time before it happens in the rest of the country.

It also seems like those who emigrate here (legal or not) know how to use the system for their best interest. But if you grow up here, you are at a disadvantage because you are taught not to use or abuse the system. Immigrants know far better how to get welfare, homes, cars, etc all handed to them on silver platters. If you are white however, you get no assistance because of the color of your skin. Walk in to any government agency & look around with your ears open. No doubt, you'll hear everything but English.

When I applied to take college courses, I wasn't able to qualify for financial aid (I had to work to pay for classes), but if you're an immigrant, you don't have to worry about how to pay for your classes. The government will make sure you get a good education for free or low cost. It's only getting worse.

I can't wait to get out of this hell hole. It's been going steadily down hill since the 70s. I see a time when if you're not an immigrant, you'll have no place here.