California Refutes Mass Immigration Advocates                       

            If mass immigration and diversity are as wonderful as its pushers claim, how do they explain California? Four decades ago, the state offered an excellent quality of life, a pleasant environment with wide-open spaces, an economic climate congenial to the middle class, excellent schools and public services, and a unifying American culture.

            That was when the tidal waves of immigration, much of it illegal, began rolling over the state. Largely pushed by immigration, California’s population skyrocketed from 20 million in 1970 to more than 36 million today. Twenty-eight percent of that population is foreign born, the highest percentage of any state in the union.

            So what is California like today? One who sums it up well is Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA): “The once legendary California quality of life has declined precipitously.” That indeed is an understatement. Immigration boosters, with their typical dishonesty, try to pretend that immigration isn’t really the main cause, but it is hard to think of a problem the state has which is not significantly aggravated by immigration.

            Just consider the sheer overcrowding and traffic gridlock in the state—and the loss of green space and breathing room. Orange County, near Los Angeles, got its name from its once numerous orange groves. Today, strip malls and other development cover most of the land where the oranges once grew. Certainly mass immigration has something to do with this.

            And also it has something to do with a soaring tax burden on middle-class taxpayers who have to pick up the fiscal tab for the schooling, welfare and health costs of an immigrant population that is, on average, poor and unskilled. The strain on services has been intense, but in spite of the sharp tax hikes, the state is struggling to avoid bankruptcy.

            Four decades ago, California was a conservative-leaning state, though one with a balance of left and right factions and a functioning two-party system. Today, leftist politicians in the Democratic Party, relying significantly on the votes of semi-assimilated immigrants to impose an agenda of business regulation and social engineering that makes California less and less congenial to traditional middle-class Americans. Their aggravation increases all the more amid the constant conflicts and misunderstandings brought about by multicultural diversity.

            As a consequence, more Americans are leaving California than going there.  Immigration boosters spin their theories well. But the reality of mass immigration, not the theory, is California today. And if that immigration doesn’t stop, or at least slow down, most other states will follow the sad direction of what was once the Golden State.