"Mexifornia, Five Years Later"

Must reading by Victor Davis Hanson, author of MEXIFORNIA. The article is quite lengthy but worth the investment of time; Hanson's overall conclusion is that the impact of illegal immigration on our state has been worse than he predicted half a decade ago.

One of the more shocking statistics Hanson cites is that "...almost one in three Mexican-American males between the ages of 18 and 24 recently reported being arrested, one in five has been jailed, and 15,000 illegal aliens are currently in the California penal system."

In my line of work as a proofreader I regularly read court transcripts, and am often struck, due to that reading, by how heavily our local area has been impacted by Hispanic gangs. I had no idea, however, that the crime statistics were this dire. The picture Hanson paints is sobering indeed.

Hanson closes anecdotally: "Ever since the influx of illegals into our quiet valley became a flood, I have had five drivers leave the road, plow into my vineyard, and abandon their cars, without evidence of either registration or insurance. On each occasion, I have seen them simply walk or run away from the scene of thousands of dollars in damage. Similarly, an intoxicated driver who ran a stop sign hit my car broadside and then fled the scene... Such anecdotes have become common currency in the American Southwest. Ridiculed by elites as evidence of prejudice, these stories, statistical studies now show, reflect hard fact."

I have such an anecdote to tell myself, as a couple of weeks ago I was the victim of a hit-and-run accident when I was rearended into another car; the driver who caused the accident, a young Hispanic man, fled the scene, leaving behind a few thousand dollars' worth of damage. (Thank God, no one was seriously injured.) In today's environment, it seems chances are fairly high the hit-and-run driver was illegal and uninsured. That's not prejudice, but simply "how it is" living today in Southern California. Our state's infrastructure is strained to the seams, while at the same time society is burdened with increasing crime and the breakdown of conventions which keep society running smoothly -- such as stopping at the scene of an accident.