Immigration Reform Facts part I

To report illegal aliens (activity) call the DHS National Hotline

1 866 DHS 2ICE.

California’s public school system, which once led the nation in education, now stands at or near the bottom of the list. In many parts of the state, schools have drastically deteriorated from trying to meet the needs of a rapidly growing immigration-driven student population.

Currently, California’s K-12 system is home to one in eight American students.

In 2004–05 California spent $9,811 per pupil to educate our children. An estimated 425,000 illegal immigrant students filling California’s classrooms cost taxpayers more than $4 billion. Some estimates are as high as $7.7 billion, just to educate illegal immigrants.

In areas with especially high immigrant populations, such as Los Angeles, the school construction program required to meet the demand of explosive student enrollment was so massive that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to be called in to manage it. It’s common for schools to use trailers as temporary classrooms to try to accommodate out-of-control student numbers.

Standards of learning continue to fall steadily as number of students per teacher reaches unprecedented proportions. The fact that many immigrant students don’t speak English only adds to the difficulty in providing an adequate education for all California students.

As of 2005, 25 percent of California’s K-12 enrollment was designated as “English learners,” 43 percent speak a language other than English at home, and 33 percent live below the poverty line.

Also as of 2005 one-third of the state’s 982 public school districts neared the bottom of their financial reserves in an effort to make ends meet, with 14 expected to run out of money in two years. Another 65 also face the likelihood that their expenses will surpass revenues in that time.

Traffic:

 As home to five of the nation’s 20 most congested metro areas, California’s traffic problems are legendary.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, each person traveling by car in peak periods wastes, on average, 62 hours a year—nearly eight full working days—in congestion delays. For Californians that number is even higher.

Traffic experts agree that there is neither enough money nor enough time to build the roads and highways needed to meet the California’s current demands. The cause? Too many cars and too many people.

Consider the problem faced by California during one of its highest immigration periods, from 1984 and 1997. During that time at least 26,000 lane-miles of streets and highways were added to the entire road network statewide; the Interstate highway system grew by five percent; freeways and expressways off the Interstate system increased by 26 percent; principal arterial streets grew 13 percent; and minor arterial streets increased 26 percent. Over that same period California’s population grew 28 percent and the amount of driving increased by 45 percent.

The conclusion? Building roads doesn’t solve our problems, controlling our state’s population does.

California’s health care system is under siege. Two-thirds of California hospitals are losing money; hundreds of medical groups have closed or gone bankrupt while most of the others are in financial trouble; and 84 hospitals have closed, many due to overuse of emergency rooms and illegal aliens' unpaid medical bills.

Experts warn that California is not prepared for the onslaught we would receive today in the event of an emergency such as an earthquake, hurricane, bioterrorist attack or a pandemic.

Financial pressures and competition continue to impact the supply of doctors, nurses, clinics and hospitals. Yet our population continues to swell even as health care resources dwindle. In 2006, California is spending $186 billion on healthcare. And yet we still can’t keep up with the growing demands.

Until California controls its population growth, the health care situation will only get worse. And California won't control its population growth until immigration is reduced to reasonable levels.