Mexifornia: A State of Becoming Read Online Free PDF Page A

drug-trafficking arrests involved illegal aliens.) In contrast, the pro-labor
    Left, salivating over a larger bloc vote, slowly discovered that the wages of its own impoverished domestic constituencies were eroded by less expensive and more industrious alien workers (50 percent of real wage labor losses was recently attributed by the Labor Department to the influx of cheap immigrant labor) - and that puts a strain on the coalition that the Left wants to build.
    It is hard for progressive unions to be eager for imported labor from Mexico when millions of second-generation Mexican-American and African-American laborers are making not much above the minimum wage. Indeed, one of the unforeseen results of the infamous "Operation Wetback" that sought to deport illegal immigrants during the 1950s was a rapid increase in wage labor for legal farm workers throughout the Southwest. Conversely, some studies indicate that the presence of plentiful foreign laborers in the 1990s reduced the wages of unskilled workers by 5 percent. So does tough border control unfairly exclude Mexican nationals from the American dream, or does it assure Mexican-American citizens that their labor will be fairly rewarded?
    Perplexed liberals of northern
California
are in a special dilemma. Committed to a multicultural agenda that does not "privilege" any particular heritage and in theory favors granting the world's poor nearly unlimited access to America, they nevertheless are also keen environmentalists who adamantly support population control. A San Francisco Bay Area Sierra Club member with one or two children who drives a fuel-efficient Volvo or a small four-wheel-drive Toyota, loves to backpack and fights for the state's shrinking open spaces cannot help but be worried over news that California's population is destined to grow to 50 or 60 million souls in the next twenty years - almost all of that increase the result of either illegal immigration or the large families of first-and second-generation Hispanic newcomers. For example, in the two-year period between the 2000 Census and the end of 2002, California's population growth by 872,000 was almost entirely due to immigration, mostly from Mexico and much of it illegal. To go from trying to stay alive while crossing the border, to enjoying the bounty of Kmart and Burger King, to joining the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club is a complex task requiring more than a single generation.
    What happens when all that assiduous effort to recycle trash, block power-plant construction and try to ban internal combustion engines butts up against the real needs of millions of the desperate who first want the warmth of four walls, a flush toilet and basic appliances? Tearing out vineyards in the Central Valley to build HUD-supported housing tracts ensures such immigrants a decent home. Erecting more freeways accommodates millions more of the second-hand, often severely polluting cars that poor immigrants drive. Building schools, hospitals and clinics meets the rising demands of millions of young Hispanics without birth control or insurance. And all these services are somewhat antithetical to preserving untamed whitewater rivers (which could be dammed to provide water and power for a thirsty, energy-hungry state), green belts (which cause the remaining usable land to become too expensive for affordable new tract houses), and stringent restrictions on dumping, hunting, fishing, camping and use of public lands (which mostly hurt the poor, who rarely are acquainted with complex laws or have easy access to proper public facilities).
    Even the libertarians of
California
have their own dilemma. In theory, they advocate open borders - the Chicano dream of sin fronteras - and the idea that capital flow, not centralized government, adjudicates who comes and who goes. In principle, they support the right of a small businessman to choose who works for him - preferably for low pay and with little hassle. But in reality, the