sidewalk where Edgar Cruz and AndresrnMorales stood talking. Gunfire erupted,rnand Cruz and Morales crumpled to thernground. Cruz died on the spot; Moralesrnsurvived. Cruz’s uncle, Pedro CaballerornCruz, said he would return his nephew’srnbody to their hometown, Hidalgo, Mexico,rnfor burial. On Sunday, gunfire eruptedrnagain when bullets from a speedingrncar were sent in the direction of mournersrnon their way to a memorial service forrnCruz.rnTen men have been arrested in connectionrnwith the murder and the shooting.rnPolice say the violence is the resultrnof a rivalry between a gang of Mexicanrnimmigrants and a gang of Salvadoran immigrants.rnDiversity evidently has notrnstrengthened the Hispanic communit)’.rnThe communities that have been affectedrnmost severely by the Mexican invasionrnare not the far-flung middle- andrnupper-middle-class suburbs of Los Angeles,rnsuch as Thousand Oaks, but the middle-rnand lower-middle-class white areas ofrnthe San Fernando Valley and the centralrncore of Los Angeles. Ironically, blackrnSouth-Central Los Angeles has been particularlyrnhard hit. Blacks in South-Centralrnare voicing their complaints in arnmanner that whites would never dare forrnfear of being branded racist, xenophobic,rnor bigoted. Terr)’Anderson is a black autornmechanic who has lived nearly all hisrnlife near the Coliseum in South-CentralrnLos Angeles. He managed to get an editorialrnpublished in the Los Angeles Timesrnvoicing his concerns over Mexican immigration.rnIf he had been a white autornmechanic, I doubt that the Times wouldrnhave printed his views.rnWrote Terr}’ Anderson in part:rnToday, teenagers can’t get afterschoolrnor entry-level jobs—somethingrnto put on a resume. Wlien Irnwas 16 and 17,1 had jobs at McDonald’s,rnBurger King, Jack in thernBox. Now these jobs in L.A. arernheld by 30- or 40-year-old immigrantsrn— 100 percent Spanishspeakingrnand probably 90 percentrnfrom Mexico.rnWe have schools here that usedrnto be 80 percent to 90 percentrnblack and now, after a period of 10rnvears, are 80 percent to 90 percentrnLahno. As this trend spreads,rnblacks either can move to otherrnneighborhoods or watch their childrenrnstuck in schools listening tornSpanish all day. Yet nobody speaksrnup for our children the way thernpro-immigrant organizations do forrnimmigrant children. As a residt,rnour children are getting the equivalentrnof half a day of school. Wliyrnshould our children be deprived?rnMy two-bedroom house near thernColiseum is worth about $100,000.rnA comparable house hvo doorsrnaway sold for $135,000 and thernbuyers put five immigrant familiesrnin it. A black family can’t pay thatrnand can’t live like that. In thernAmerican culture, we have onernfamily to a house. Each of my immigrantrnneighbors has seven orrneight children, while we Americansrnhave tvvo or three. Before long, allrnthese children are going to need arnplace of their own. Does a blackrnhomeowner have to put four familiesrnin the house and a fifth in therngarage in order to sur’ive? A forsalernsign in our neighborhood causesrnpanic. We know who will getrnthe house. There will be 20 to 30rnpeople living in it, they will keeprngoats, they will grow corn in thernfront yard, they will hang theirrnwash on the front fence. It’s a culturernclash.rnAn identical process has been going onrnin lower-middle-class white neighborhoodsrnin the San Fernando Valley. Inrn1960, the San Fernando Valley was nearlyrn95 percent white. Today, it is only 60rnpercent white and the majority’ of publicschoolrnchildren are Hispanic. Neighborhoodrnafter neighborhood of blue-collarrnwhites has been destroyed in exactly thernmanner described by Terry Anderson.rnSome may argue that these demographicrnchanges are nothing new inrnAmerica, that this process has gone onrnwith ever}’ new immigrant group—Irish,rnCermans, Jews, Poles, Italians. To somerndegree, the argument is true. However,rnthose groups came into the country legally,rnand an individual immigrant could berndenied entry for a whole host of reasons.rnMoreover, there was no taxpayer-supportedrnwelfare system to greet them. Mostrnimportantly, they were not here to extendrnthe boundaries of their mother countryrninto the United States.rnThe majority of Mexicans who haverncome into the United States during thernlast 30 years have come in illegally. Exactlyrnhow many we do not know, but estimatesrnput the number at upward of tenrnmillion. Half of those reside in California.rnIn 1986, Congress granted amnestyrnto most illegals, declaring that major reformrnwould be instituted to stop future illegalrnimmigration. Yet nothing muchrnhas been done. Now, another amnest)’ isrnbeing suggested. Unlike the 1986rnamnesty, this one is supported by thernAFL-CIO, which believes that illegalrnaliens are organized labor’s secret weaponrnto replenish its depleted ranks. Bigrnbusiness also favors amnest}’ and tacitlyrnapproves of illegal immigration. Cheaprnlabor is hard to beat, especially when therntaxpayer picks up the tab. Meanwhile,rnthe vast majorit}’ of the American peoplernin poll after poll has not only voiced itsrnopposition to amnest}’ but called for deportationsrnand an increased border presencernby immigration agents.rnIn 1994, Californians passed Proposifionrn187 by a vote of 60 percent to 40 percent.rnThe proposition would have expelledrnillegal aliens from public schoolsrnand cut off all government benefits (exceptrnemergency medical treatment) forrnillegal immigrants. Even a substantialrnnumber of Hispanics (27 percent accordingrnto exit polls) voted for it. I suspect thatrnthese were the old Mexican-Americanrnfamilies of California, known for their socialrnconservatism and patriotism, whornhave seen their jobs taken and theirrnneighborhoods devastated, and havernbeen embarrassed by the Mexican nationalismrnof illegal aliens.rnPro-illegal immigrant groups immediatelyrnsought to overturn the will of thernvoters. State legislator Art Torres, addressingrna group of Hispanic organizationsrnassembled at the Universit}’ of California,rnRiverside, said, “Power is notrngiveir to you, you have to take it. RememberrnProposition 187 is the last gasprnof white America.” Subsequently, thernpro-illegal groups tied up the propositionrnin the courts by challenging its constitutionalityrnbefore a sympathetic judge,rnMariana Pfaelzer. Then the new governorrnof California, Gray Davis, cut a dealrnwith the activist groups, agreeing not torntake the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.rnThis was all done against the will of thernpeople of California. Since then.rnSupreme Court decisions suggest thatrnProposition 187 would have passed constitutionalrnmuster.rnThe most disturbing aspect of Mexicanrnillegals is their Mexican nafionalism.rnA graphic demonstration of this occurredrnin the Los Angeles Coliseum in Februaryrn1998, when the U.S. national soccerrnteam played Mexico. There were 91,000rnOCTOBER 2000/37rnrnrn