updated: Oct 15, 2010, 7:30 AM
By Art Flores

By Art Flores

We could STOP gang crime if we really wanted to. But we don't because we FAIL to address the underlying issues related to gang activity. The real issue surrounding the increase in gang activity started one or two generations ago and it will remain an issue and only worsen as long as we fail in our duty to the citizens of the US by allowing illegal immigration.
If you carefully examine crime statistics you will find that gang activity is directly correlated to illegal immigration. It is not necessarily the illegal immigrants who are committing crimes (unless you believe that illegal immigration is a crime) but the children and grandchildren of illegal immigrants. These children are many more times likely to commit crimes and end up in prison, jail and/or the juvenile system than the children of citizens. Right now more than 1 in 6 Hispanic males born in the U.S. today can EXPECT to be imprisoned during his lifetime. -- Billions upon Billions of tax payers money will be spent schooling, housing and then imprisoning them.

The reasons are many, but it starts with the socioeconomic conditions that illegal immigrants live in, their lack of education and lack of upward mobility, absentee parents (through: abandonment, prison, divorce, deportation, working multiple jobs etc...) and ends with children who feel torn between two worlds, but apart of neither the world their parents come from or the one they grow up in. The despair, hopelessness and feelings of disenfranchisement are pervasive in the first and second generations living in the US. Gang activity is a way for these young people to bond and survive, but it also hurts our economy and jeopardizes our safety and the safety of our loved ones.

In order to address the real issues, we need to have a strong immigration policy and we need to determine once and for all who is really a citizen and who isn't.

If anyone cares to verify this by determining the status of the young men who were incarcerated as a result of "Gator-Roll" or the beating of that young man on Tuesday morning I'm sure you'll only confirm what I have said here.

Here's a great excerpt from an article in TIME from a few years ago:

Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration controls, warns that even if immigrants are less likely to commit crimes, their children and grandchildren may be more likely to end up on the wrong side of the law. He points out that U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that Hispanics make up 20% of state and Federal prison populations in 2005, a rise of 43% since 1990. At that rate, one in every six Hispanic males born in the U.S. today can expect to be imprisoned during his lifetime - more than double the rate for non-Hispanic whites, but lower than that of African-Americans of the same age. "That means the children and grandchildren of immigrants are committing a lot of crime, making this a long-term problem," Camarota says, before adding, "That's much worse news."




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