Los Angeles officially crossed over 4 million people last year according to a report from the California Department of Finance. Those of course are just the official numbers. I'm sure it's actually a lot more. But that is not the whole story regarding population growth in this country.
LA Times
The population of L.A. quietly surpassed the 4-million mark for the first time last year, the California Department of Finance announced Tuesday.
... the numbers show that the city gained 37,658 residents last year, and as of Jan. 1, its population was 4,018,080.
It's always a good time to take a look at the nation as a whole and contemplate just a few of the impacts of illegal immigration in those numbers.
So, of course the logical place to go is the US Census Bureau, which doesn't ask people's immigration status in collecting the numbers.
Why are you looking at me like that? You heard me right. They don't count just citizens or legal residents, but also illegal aliens and children. I know, it's absolutely ridiculous and unfortunately It's the only source we have. I know they are not the true numbers - because people lie - but what do you want?
According to the US Census Bureau here is the regional growth from April 2000 to July 2006
| Region | July 2006 | April 2000 | Change | % Change |
| Northeast | 54,741,353 | 53,594,784 | 1,146,569 | 2.1 |
| Midwest | 66,217,736 | 64,395,194 | 1,822,542 | 2.8 |
| South | 109,083,752 | 100,235,846 | 8,847,906 | 8.8 |
| West | 69,355,643 | 63,198,778 | 6,156,865 | 9.7 |
That's right the South and West are growing at 4-5 times as fast as the Northeast and Midwest. Hmm, what could be causing this? Do they just have a more abundant supply of Viagra? Or maybe they just like to do the dirty dance 4-5 times as often as those in the Midwest and the Northeast?
No, of course not! It's illegal immigration!
The South and West contain all of our border states with Latin America which is where the largest portion of the illegals are coming from.
Now the impacts of this are of course crime, gangs, negative impacts on education, destruction of the health care system, weird diseases, lowering of wages and displacement of low wage workers, social costs, congestion and the general Balkanization of America through segregated cultures.
The one I would like to point out though is the raping of the voice of the American people in the Midwest and the Northeast, because many people ignore this one.
If you live in the Northeast - as I do - your voice is going to get a bit smaller in Washington DC and that is because of how the House of Representatives is apportioned. It is based off of population, unlike the Senate which consists of 2 Senators from every state. There are a finite number of representatives in the House. As of 1929 it is fixed at 435.
These seats are derived from - you guessed it - the population numbers as reported by the US Census Bureau. Which as is stated above does not distinguish between illegal aliens, legal residents and US citizens in its count. Therefore if you have been in the dark and thought that illegal aliens do not have an impact on our legislation and government, you are mistaken. As the population grows in the West and South they will receive more seats in the House and those seats will be directly taken from seats in the Northeast and Midwest.
For instance this Sioux City Journal article states the following regarding 2010:
Source of the basic information were the Brookings Institution and the Population Reference Bureau. The think tankers estimate as many as nine seats in the House will shift to Sun Belt states. Census rules mandate that “all free persons” be counted.
Your voice gets a little smaller. Suddenly the House starts to care just a little bit more about the states along the southern border and the rest of us will get a little more ignored.
I believe many politicians in border states realize this and are actively trying to keep the American people's eyes off of this so that fellow politicians and the residents in their region can reap the rewards of such a change. They have no disincentive to stop the flow of illegal aliens into their territory. A lot of federal funding is also based off of these population statistics, which means that it is further incentive for states to ignore the growth of illegals in their state.
Of course this has nothing to do with what the American people want and everything to do with politics. And before you border staters start laughing at your new found power in DC, realize that you will have to deal with the brunt of the negative impacts mentioned above. You will also have to deal with the fact that the federal government doesn't give you nearly enough money to offset the influx of the population growth. So enjoy your decreased social systems. In the end this drags the country down as a whole.
So, the next time you think about illegal immigration and you come down to the conclusion that it is just the big business Republicans looking for cheap labor versus the Democrats looking for new immigrant votes, realize that there is another political angle going on that is usually ignored and almost never reported on by any news organization...
... and that is the loss of your voice.
