I just read Hanson’s piece on “Two Californias.” He is a native of the Fresno County town of Selma. He’s basically lamenting that CA’s entire central valley is now nearly 100% “Hispanic,” many of whom are “illegal immigrants” and the fact that, due to the shut down of many farms in the last few years (Fed Gov’t paid landowners to idle their land), the unemployment rate in CA’s central valley is now 15-20%, causing much of this population to live in squalor and subside on public assistance.
He’s blaming the wrong people. Illegal immigration is a Federal issue. Many services and benefits CA attempts to provide for this population are essentially unfunded mandates. CA is mandated to pay for emergency room treatment of an illegal immigrant, provide prenatal care, food, housing vouchers and education, yet it is not compensated anywhere near enough by the Fed Govm’t to do this. It is the fault of the Federal Gov’mt that CA has this huge of an “illegal alien” population to begin with, due to its various “work visa” and other visa policies (in which many just overstay and disappear), its “open border policies” and past “border-sieve” problems. This is why our representatives need to stay singularly focused on getting our fair share of Federal dollars from Washington for all of these “unfunded mandates” as well as border-patrol and INS enhancements. Continuing to fulfill these ongoing “mandates,” even partially, could easily wind up “bankrupting” CA in the near future.
