How Illegal Immigration Has Affected Me Through The Years, page 1

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tooled leather belts, OR construction boots, and plaster on their pants.

There are different signs. Yes, after a while you can "profile". May sound mean, but it's real.Downtown suddenly became a mirror of Mexico. I've been to Mexico, and it had the same characteristics.Then there are "vendors" who sell things on street corners. They usually cook things or sell fruit. None of them have licenses or answer to the same Federal guidelines or safety policies that the rest do. They set up a table or have an ice chest with their supplies right out in the open. Cops don't say anything to them, they can't. And no agency is called, it's never reported. While American business owners have to run hoops for the Franchise Tax Board and other agencies you deal with when you have a small business.

Then there are the workers which huddle around Home Depot and other large manufacturing places. If you own a truck like I do, they wave at you when you drive in. Some days(moreso lately) they run up to you. Imagine everytime you go get something for your home, you got 20 guys running toward your car. They do it even when you don't look at them.

I can literally go out right now and film 20 different places in my vicinity where they are gathered.

Here's the funny thing though. I got a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. The officer pulled me over in a parking lot where 40 guys were hanging out looking for work. Now ask me if I have "patience" or "tolerance" after that.

I have slowly seen over many years that this town has turned into a shadow of what it once was.

I've seen neighborhoods go down in value. Entire towns now are "Spanish Speaking" only. There are parts that if you're an American, you are basically not welcomed. YOU are the outsider. There are restaurants that only speak spanish. I've been to them. They will NOT speak English to you, and they will NOT serve you. But you cannot "prove" it, and discrimination laws are nowhere to be found.

The other day I saw this report. www.nytimes.com...

Look at the map for California. This is what we have going on. And we here KNOW where it comes from. It's one of the biggest Elephants in the room to people that have lived here for at least over a decade.

California is broke. Now admittedly Illegal Immigration only accounts for PART of the deficits. But I think we could use the OVER TEN BILLION in these hard times, not the answer, but part of it.

Our Hospitals have closed. They ran out of money. And the rest that are open are jam packed. Our public schools have become even worse than what they were in the 80's when I attended them. I thought they were S***Holes then. It's a new level now.

With Illeal Immigration, many cities have taken on "acceptable" poverty. I say acceptable because it seems like a lot think "well, we got it better than we had it in Mexico". Then there is some sort of Mexican "status quo", which panders to a lowest common denominator.

It just seems like they don't want to integrate. Even the host families along with them.

Our State and city legislators are FILLED with Hispanic Illegal Immigration apologists who get voted in by their "constituents" more every day. Mayor Villaragosa is a prime example of what can be achieved through the "cheap vote".

Gang activity is another thing, the drugs, MS-13 influenced gangs. Those guys have the whole port area of Long Beach in their pocket. They OWN parts of the Black Market deals coming in through Long Beach. And nobody can stop them now. he Mexican drug trade is ALL OVER this place. And they have shops which act as fronts for their operations.

If you have lived here, you can see it is has been a slow INVASION of a culture that just does not seem to want to play by the rules, or at least become "American"

I don't really know what that means, but it's just a feeling. And I'm not speaking as some "patriotic" flag waving moron who has Xenophobic fantasies about "AMURKA"

I know there are many with romantic views about it all. Sort of a "root for the underdog" feeling. But spend some time here and YOU start to feel like the underdog.
It's not so romantic until you see how it can devastate a state or city considered to be your home.

Now I know the "why" of it all. We screwed Mexico with NAFTA. After that they flooded here, that's been established. While I understand their flight and reasons, I can't have sympathy anymore. How long must WE in the border cities endure this? Mexico seems to have jumped into our lives and we have no say or control in the matter. '

I NEVER signed up to live in Mexico. Even the Mexican Americans that live here never signed up. Many of them which are personal friends are PISSED.

And while the Corporations have themselves a new working/slave class...while Congressmen have cheap votes, and while cheap labor is the norm. The average "American" slowly goes out of the picture.

I don't say this as an alarmist. MOST of what I am saying is UNDERSTATED. There is so much more that I can say about this subject , it would be enough to fill a book.

But after recently viewing threads on the subject , I have to speak up and tell my side. It is NOT easy seeing your once beloved home city, turn into a dump overnight. Yeah, this place had it's problems before, but nothing like this. I could literally take a map out and point to different towns in L.A. County and show which ones are "overrun".

I am shocked that there have not been more documentaries about it, or honest journalism. It's a phenomenon that out of State/City people just don't understand the FULL spectrum of.I have had enough of it. Now there is no hatred for them in that way. I have known some really great Illegal Immigrants...great people. But the I find myself looking at them negatively as a whole. It has changed me, and I admit it.

There are MANY out there like me too. I am not alone. Maybe this shows that influx of ANY group into another breeds hatred or distrust. Maybe there is something to be said for the negatives. But all I know is something needs to be done about it. There are many other priorities such as Banks, corruption, wars for profit, etc. BUT, if you are in a city or State where this epidemic is hitting, do ALL that you can to stop it.

Learn from Los Angeles and California. Look to us if you ever doubt this can happen and happen this negatively. Do NOT let your home succumb to this or you will find yourselves jaded and cynical like never before.*

[edit on 28-1-2010 by Prove_It_NOW]