"Give me your tired, your poor?" No Thanks!

From my understanding, most of my ancestors immigrated from Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden.  I am sure that there is a myriad of various countries that I could add to that list, however, these "big three" get most of the credit in my family tree.

I am very thankful that my ancestors were welcomed at Ellis Island and made the United States of America their home.  From Kentucky to Iowa to Illinois, they all settled in, worked hard, and provided for their families the best they could.  In that day, the plan worked very well.  The tired and downtrodden were necessary 100 years ago when we had a manufacturing economy based on raw manpower. And even then there were strict controls to prevent people coming illegally, with over 25% of immigrants entering Ellis Island sent home.

A few weeks go, I had several new sales that needed to be turned in before the quarter's end.  I pulled the managerial staff together and devised a plan to allow our plant workers the opportunity to work overtime and gain some extra money.  A "no-brainer" in today's economy right?  Wrong.  No one wanted to work extra hours.  I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't understand why not.  And then I got an explanation that hit me right between the eyes.  I was told that, if our workers put in extra time and earned extra money, that it would affect their government support.  In other words, their precious entitlements might not pay quite so much if they were to earn extra money.

So I did some research and the numbers are shocking. Fifty-seven percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children (which is alarmingly high in itself). The highest rates are for families headed by an immigrant from the Dominican Republic (82 percent using welfare) and Mexico and Guatemala (75 percent). The states with the highest rates are Arizona, Texas, California, and New York (61–62 percent) — which, unfortunately, are also the top states of immigrant settlement. For immigrant households with four or more children, 81 percent are using welfare, as are 80 percent of households with children that are headed by an immigrant without a high school degree.

In addition, the Fresno county city of San Joaquin has a higher share of children under 18 than any other California city, 41 percent compared to the state average of 25 percent.  Orange Cove has the second-highest share of children.  Both cities are over 95 percent Hispanic, and both have per capita incomes lower than the per capita income of Mexico, which was $10,000 in 2009, or $14,000 at purchasing power parity.  Per capita income in San Joaquin was $8,000, and $7,500 in Orange Cove.

Quite alarming.  Immigrants have figured out that they can come to America, have children, be susidized for everything by you and me, and not have to work.  I understand that there are exceptions, however, when you look at the percentages that I have listed in the previous two paragraphs, it is clear to me that illegals and other immigrants aren't coming here to take jobs that Americans won't take.

America today is a wealthy country in a competitive global economy where our prosperity is always in danger of being toppled.  I cannot understand why so many Americans, in spite of the clear evidence presented by California's fall from grace, seem bent on a less-educated, less-wealthy future.  In the end, this problem is not about common sense or morals, or providing a helping hand.  It is about power to the Democratic party.  In other words, Democrats need people to be needy and dependant, not productive and self-sustaining.

And if this issue isn't at the forefront in the 2012 election, we'll not only fail to fix our spending addiction, we'll leave the country in a perilous state and, most likely, without the means to ever right itself again.