Bernard Weisberger appears to believe that the cause of the recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment is that the majority of Americans resent “aliens.” While I do not doubt that for some this may be the case, others want them gone because they are an economic burden.

We currently have a recession in California, and we are very concerned about the costs to our state caused by the millions of immigrants. Mr. Weisberger states that “the evidence of the actual economic effect of immigration is inconclusive,” quoting a Business Week article that states that “the U.S. is reaping a bonanza of highly educated foreigners.”

But the fact is that in California the average education of immigrants is seventh grade. Because of the lack of skills and lack of education, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children dependency rate in 1990 for Latino women was 23 percent higher than the rate for all other women. The Department of Social Services estimates that nearly half of all refugees in the state are dependent on public assistance. While rich people from Hong Kong may long to come here, I can assure you that rich, well-educated Mexicans are not flooding across our borders.

Of the California state-prison population, 16 percent is known to be in the country illegally. The cost to taxpayers is $402.7 million annually. One of the most devastating economic effects of immigration is to the school system. Forty-five percent of all immigrant children in the United States are in California schools. In the last two years the state has transferred in excess of three billion (not million) dollars in taxes from local governments and special districts to fund schools. The rising school population is caused by immigration.

How do I know all this? I am a budget analyst for the County of Santa Barbara. I am a liberal Democrat; I really did not want to believe that immigration was such a problem. But I understand numbers, and the numbers are clear.

Last, I do not condemn the immigrants, and I believe that we have to take care of those who are here. This Californian is angry, however, at employers who hire illegal aliens, encouraging more to come, and at the federal government for not stopping the influx at the borders and at those who mouth doctrinaire ideologies without regard to the facts and at publishers who publish same.