This Just Cannot Continue...

Regarding illegal immigration - some serious food for thought from the L. A. Times (they are right in the heart of the whole issue for sure!)...Here are some uncomfortable facts:
1. 40% of all workers in L. A. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people)are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is (the LA Times concludes) because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens. (WHOA!)
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal , whose births were paid for by taxpayers. (Hmmn, immigration has NO impact on our budget deficit Mr. Gubernator?)
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally (ditto)
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal. (ditto)
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. Are Spanish speaking.
10. In L. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish.
(There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County . )

(Note again: All 10 of the above are from the Los Angeles Times - not a conservative newspaper)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. Over 70% of the United States ' annual population growth (and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York ) results from immigration. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue. America has always welcomed immigrants and we should continue to do so. In the past, immigration may have temporarily depleted some jobs but in the end, contributed to our society far more than took anything away. Immigration, it could easily be argued, is what made our nation great.
Now, however, we have become something we have not been until now - a massive welfare state. And the flood of immigrants through our southern borders is an altogether different kind of immigrant. They are typically not skilled laborers or professionals (we have had waves of this kind of immigrant before though this was before the coming of the welfare state). Now-a-days, these immigrants are the poorest of the poor (though 2% DO pick crops according to the LA Times above). And our country has decided that poor people get a free ride (or at least massive assistance esp. when children are involved). O.K. that's fine if you can afford to pay for it - it may not always be the BEST way to help folks in the long run but I really don't think that it's bad to help the poor at all. IF you can pay for it.
Now-a-days this is a bigger and bigger IF isn't it? Fact is, it's killing our economy. Government spending is racing out of control just as all the boomers hit retirement and strain that system to breaking. The bottom line - our big heart is so big it is going to burst our pocketbooks and endanger the entire nation and economy.
I don't know what the answer is. I don't want to harm the poor and I don't want our economy to collapse or to have the government swell to tryannical proportions to try to "do it all." Sometimes you have to make your priorities and make hard choices to keep to them. Let's be committed to our poor and help them. O.K. But I don't think America can afford to be committed to the rest of the world's poor in the same way.
The best way to resolve this crisis is to make the borders work for real. Control immigration, send home those who aren't here legally and can't show how they make a vital contribution to our society (letting skilled laborers remain) and send all illegal alien prisoners back to their home countries with our borders shut to their quick return.
Then go to town on finding ways to fix the problems of our poor. We can go ahead and contribute to humanitarian aid to other nations if we like - fine. But letting them flood in to help them just can't keep happening anymore. We are running out of sane ways to fund it. The jig is up.