The Real Story: Illegal Immigration & The Middle Class

[MDM4AU 336]

The Real Story: Illegal Immigration & The Middle Class

Updated October 04, 2006

We've been talking for a few days now about the 700 mile fence that's supposed to be built along some of the Mexican border. But the media now seems to have now shifted the story to how Mexicans are reacting to the fence. They're begging --begging! the President not to sign the bill because they say it would make the border less secure.

Right. How is that even possible? The Real Story today is that illegal immigration has been so prevalent for so long that we often can't even recognize it's consequences any longer. Sure, we all focus on people not learning English, or the millions of dollars we're paying in family aid for their children; but what about the less obvious effects?

In Los Angeles, a city influenced by illegal immigration perhaps more than any other, the middle class has all but vanished. A recent report determined that over 71 percent of neighborhoods in Los Angeles are now considered to be either upper or lower class. The middle class, which for so long had been the majority, is now relegated to a distant third place.

Almost half a million households in L.A. earn less than $15,000 a year now -- imagine that, earning $15,000 in a place where the average home costs more than half a million dollars. Meanwhile, over 250,000 households have a net worth over a million dollars...that's the greatest concentration of millionaires anywhere in the country! And the divide is only getting wider.

I've read report after report about these numbers and no one ever dares to mention that illegal immigration might be a contributing factor to this. And that's a real shame considering that it's not just Los Angeles that's being impacted. Of the ten cities with the smallest percentage of middle class neighborhoods, seven of them are places where illegal immigration has been a huge problem. Cities like Bakersfield California, Houston, Dallas, El Paso and Tucson, Arizona. Is that really just a coincidence?

I've been telling you for months now that the situation with our borders is part of the Perfect Storm that's forming against us. If you don't think that immigration or the declining middle class is a big deal, just consider that no civilization has ever survived with just rich and just poor. And neither will we.

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