Points well taken, I am not anti-hispanic, I am anti-illegal immigration. I realize not all legal and illegal immigrants are latinos, but in my area they are the vast majority. Also are a disproportionate part of the problems arising in my area. I live in a small town, everyone who grew up here went to church, school and played sports together. White, black and the occasional "other" races. We all know our town, it's history and how much different and safer it was a few years ago. We have had a small influx of white and black into our community, but less than a couple hundred. The largest increase has been by migrant workers who work the tobacco and corn fields. There was no "other side of the RR tracks."
Here are a few unspeculated facts on NC, since I haven't found the town facts as of yet, although I know from what I see and hear around here.
-Hispanic population (no way of knowing whether legal or illegal, so I'll watch what I write) 6% of state total population, 27.5% of the population growth between 1990 and 2004. 57% of total k-12 school enrollment growth between 2000 and 2004.
-Taxes paid $756 million/year
-Taxes used $817 million/year in just Education, Health Care and Correction costs.
-Net COST to state taxpayers $61 million. essentially each hispanic resident of NC costs the state $102 per year.
-The DUI remark I made was from a tv news report a few months back, as far as tangible numbers I could find its in the 20-30% range, remember this is 6% of the state population. Either way it is an unnecessary and disproportionate number, no matter pink, purple, red, black, brown, yellow, green or white it's all disgraceful.
-I also believe that immorality is a driving force for the increase in all crime stats nationwide. But in the local weekly newspaper which I read weekly, most crime reports listed don't have the names of people I went to school with or have "anglo" names for that matter.
-As far as what to do to decrease DUI #'s, maybe learn the laws of the host country, Driving Laws are also available in spanish. The booklets sit in the DMV branch in the next town east of here, and there are two stacks, English and Spanish, both of which I can read.
-As far as my border remark, I was definately too broad, but our immigration laws are already pretty fair to the immigrant.
-Yes U.S citizens are making money off of the influx of cheap labor, especially business owners, some of which I have previously worked for.
I was simply stating whether it was worth the cheaper goods and services or money saved, while letting our towns become victims of the all around increases.
Anyways, it would be nice if the positives outweighed the negatives and perhaps soon they will. My opinion is just that, an opinion.