One Reporter's Opinion: 'Do We Want 'Mexifornia'?'

Strong words, I know! But thousands arrive illegally each year and, as an example, the state of California has become home to fully 40 percent of America's immigrants – legal and illegal. They come in such overwhelming numbers because a tacit alliance of Right and Left has created an open borders policy aimed at keeping wage labor cheap and social problems fresh.

Recently I interviewed Victor Davis Hanson, Professor of Classics, California State University,* who asked the question, "Do we want 'Mexifornia'?" He refers to unlawful immigration as the third rail of California politics.

Hanson knows the problem firsthand. He is a college professor who lives in the sleepy town of Selma, Calif., which has grown from a community of 7,000 to 20,000 in only two decades – as a result of mostly illegal immigration from Mexico.

Selma is 60 percent to 90 percent Hispanic. No one knows how many of these people are citizens. Hanson rarely hears English spoken and almost every car displays a Mexican flag or decal.

Professor Hanson points out that he loves the Mexican people, but that tensions abound even within families when the subject of our sovereignty and citizenship is discussed. One of his siblings is married to a Mexican-American; another has two stepchildren whose father was an illegal from Mexico; he has a prospective son-in-law whose parents crossed the border, yet they all disagree at different times whether open borders are California's hope or its vane.

And why not? California cannot even obtain accurate numbers as to how many of the state's more than 10-12 million Hispanic residents have arrived from Mexico unlawfully.

Our Hispanic population – 70 percent of which are from Mexico – grew 53 percent during the 1980s and rose another 27 percent, to a total of 30 million between 1990 and 1996; and at present rates of births and immigration, by 2050 there will be 97 million Hispanics in the U.S. – one quarter of our American population!

Hanson points to the fact that the liberals swear that these newcomers bring in $25 billion net revenue annually; but realistic statisticians conclude that they cost the United States over $40 billion a year and that in California, each illegal immigrant will take $50,000 in services from the state beyond what he will contribute in taxes during his entire lifetime. One study suggests that the average California household must contribute at least $1,200 each year to subsidize the deficit between what these immigrants cost in services and what they pay in taxes.

Here are statistics just released:

The going wage is $8.00 per hour in California, $8.00 a week in Mexico. But that's only the beginning. These "guests" use their counterfeit documentation to get workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and state assistance, meanwhile romanticizing Mother Mexico while chastising Lady Bountiful America.

Surprise! The second generation has learned how to live, spend and consume as Americans – but not, like their fathers, to work and save as Mexicans. If rising crime rates, gang activity and illegitimacy are any indication, they resent rather than sacrifice to escape poverty.

Tragically, 37 percent of all births to Hispanic immigrants are illegitimate. The illegitimacy rate among American-born Mexican mothers is now 48 percent. Census data show median household income for the nation's Hispanics dropped 5.1 percent, yet recent immigrants from Mexico and their U.S.-born children under 18 make up only 4.2 percent of America's population and represent 10.2 percent of our poor. Hispanics account for 24 percent of America's impoverished – that's up 8 percentage points since 1985.

... and yet they keep coming, refusing to be assimilated, with romanticized Mexico ever close to their hearts, many dying in California never having sought to become U.S. citizens.

Professor Hanson points to the heart of our immigration problem: While it has always been easier for people who emigrate to keep their own culture rather than join the majority, for the first time in our state and nation's history, we have made it easier for them to do it.

Unfortunately, the future is dismal. Out of every 100 Hispanics who enter California high schools, 40 drop out and of the remaining 60, fewer than four will go on to college. Only 7 percent of all Mexican-Americans currently hold a BA. This is a national tragedy!

I praise professor Hanson. If he did not really like his Mexican-American students, who make up the majority of his classics classes, if he wanted them to fail, he would not continue to try to teach them Latin, much less Greek, English Composition or Western History and Culture – nor would he insist on essays free of grammatical error, or demand oral reports that employ classical, rhetorical tropes.

No ... if he did not like them or did not wish to live among thousands of illegal as well as legal immigrants and wish them married into his own family, he would keep them distant, teaching them therapy, letting them speak poor English or no English at all and insisting on the superiority of the "Mexican culture" – that they or their parents had fled.

Instead, the professor struggles on at what sometimes seems to be a losing battle. But he leaves for us the choice. Will we continue down this endless path facing the great question: Will California remain multi-racial or become America's first truly multi-cultural state? Will there be assimilation or will we stay with the deceitful multiculturalist present that is failing? For unchecked illegal immigration and multiculturalism are a lethal mix. California, if it is to stay as California, might cope with one or even the other – but surely not both at once.

Professor Victor David Hanson, our heroes are found not only on violent battlefields. We salute you!

* Victor Davis Hanson, a professor of Classics at California State University, Fresno, received his B.A. at the University of California at Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He was given the Award for Teaching Excellence by the American Philological Association – an annual citation given to the top undergraduate teachers of Classics.

He is the author or editor of several books on military and ancient history. He has also written about traditional agrarian and rural life and contemporary culture wars. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Times, American Heritage, The Weekly Standard and The Wilson Quarterly, and has been featured on NPR and the Jim Lehrer News Hour. He currently writes a biweekly column on the war against terrorism for National Review Online.

The legendary George Putnam is 87 years young and a veteran of 67 years as a reporter, broadcaster, and commentator ... and is still going strong. George is part of the all-star line-up of Southern California's KPLS Radio – Hot Talk AM 830.