Will,

You write: “Immigration is not really a pivotal issue to me.”

When first moving to Texas 26 years ago, I admired the hardworking Hispanics you see doing working class jobs. I still do. And if I was in there shoes I might also sneak over the US southern border to seek a better life.

But from our point of view we have to consider what is in the best long term interests of the United States. If you look at the research regarding illegal Hispanic immigration over the southern border, it points to major problems ahead. This is why immigration has slowly become a pivotal issue with me.

Sorry for the long quotes, but here are a couple. This first one is by Heather MacDonald at City Journal.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_4_hispanic_family_values.html

“Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability. Hispanic immigrants bring near–Third World levels of fertility to America, coupled with what were once thought to be First World levels of illegitimacy. (In fact, family breakdown is higher in many Hispanic countries than here.) Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.

… The dimensions of the Hispanic baby boom are startling. The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio. In states such as California and Texas, Hispanics will be in the clear majority. Nationally, whites will drop from near 70 percent of the total population in 2000 to just half by 2050. Hispanics will account for 46 percent of the nation’s added population over the next two decades, the Pew Hispanic Center reports.

… But it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

… Conservatives who support open borders are fond of invoking “Hispanic family values” as a benefit of unlimited Hispanic immigration. Marriage is clearly no longer one of those family values. But other kinds of traditional Hispanic values have survived—not all of them necessarily ideal in a modern economy, however. One of them is the importance of having children early and often. “It’s considered almost a badge of honor for a young girl to have a baby,” says Peggy Schulze of Chrysalis House, an adoption agency in Fresno.”

This next quote is from the Christian Science Monitor.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0206/p02s01-legn.htm

“US workers may be significantly less literate in 2030 than they are today. The reason: Most baby boomers will be retiring and a large wave of less-educated immigrants will be moving into the workforce. This downward shift in reading and math skills suggests a huge challenge for educators and policymakers in the future, according to a new report from the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

If they can’t reverse the trend, then it could spell trouble for a large swath of the labor force, widen an already large skill gap, and shrink the middle class.

“There is no time that I can tell you in the last hundred years” where literacy and numeracy have declined, says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston and one of the report’s authors. “But if you don’t change outcomes for a wide variety of groups, this is the future we face.”

The decline in literacy is one of the more startling projections in a report that examines what it calls a “perfect storm” of converging factors and how those trends are likely to play out if left unchecked.”

Dan Morgan, I too live in Texas and have admired the Hispanics and their hard work. I appreciate your quotes and realize there is a problem with literacy and pregnancies among unwed hispanic girls. The Illegal immigration problem became a real eye opener for me after 9-11-2001. There are supposedly AlQaeda operatives living near the border of Brownsville. Actually we have rural communities of Radical Muslims living right here in the USA today. My take on the illegal Mexicans living in the USA is they really need to get legal. I don't blame them for coming here trying to make a better life. BUT by being illegal they are in fact criminals. One thing I really DO NOT understand is WHY we are giving these illegals so many freebies???

-Fake tears
-'No Woman is Illegal' statement.
-Free 'Christmas' gifts from the government Ad.

It's easy to tell she's pandering and to whom. Bill Clinton's campaign said he won because of the "Soccer Moms." If Hillary wins it will be because of the "Sucker Moms," because only suckers will swallow the crap she's peddling.

-Fake tears
-'No Woman is Illegal' statement.
-Free 'Christmas' gifts from the government Ad.

It's easy to tell she's pandering and to whom. Bill Clinton's campaign said he won because of the "Soccer Moms." If Hillary wins it will be because of the "Sucker Moms," because only suckers will swallow the crap she's peddling.