I am going to bet you are wrong. So, how much do you owe me?

I have lived in southern California for 14 years and have lived in "border" states (if you include Florida, where immigrants enter by boat) for 27 years. Today, we contract with many second-generation Hispanics (who comprise about a huge proportion of the "trades" here to do a variety of jobs related home maintenance (we manage single family rental homes).

Illegal immigrants tend to gravitate to Hispanic neighborhoods. We also provide affordable housing to lower income Hispanic families living in Hispanic neighborhoods. So, I am going to assume you don't interact with Hispanics, who live in border states whose are facing a crisis from illegal immigration. Do some research into why Hispanics living along the border more than other identity groups want to stop illegal immigration and why it is their number one issue.

Housing costs are going through the roof. Meanwhile, illegal immigrants work for lower wages putting downward pressure on wages at the same time inflation is pushing costs up. Those illegal immigrant young men, that can't find a job, often get recruited into gangs. Gang violence and drug distribution are real problems, but far more severe in Hispanic communities as gangs compete for power and turf. There is an endless supply of new "soldiers" to fill out the ranks of the cartels in this country. The drug issue is not that immigrants are acting as "mules" but that they become part of the cartel distribution system within America. Another issue is that for young girls unable to find work, they get recruited into sex trafficking. My church works actively trying to help these young women escape their pimps.

As if those problems are not enough. Emergency rooms and hospitals are overcrowded and even though our state government is diverting funds to aid illegal immigrants, those funds are needed for our record number of homeless. Our law enforcement agencies are also stretched to the limit as property crimes are surging and more often minorities are the victims (people like me have taken to living in gated communities, but that is no solace to the poor whose cars are routinely broken into.

Our primary handyman is a Hispanic that has had his truck broken into twice and all his tools stolen while picking up supplies at Home Deport or Lowe's (now he brings an assistant to sit in the truck, while he picks up stuff). People have to survive and when an area is overwhelmed by more people than it can house, employ, educate, protect, and provide health care for... things go bad... and they are.

Our state is facing up to a $50+ billion deficit even with among the highest tax levels in the country. And we have the highest cost of living poverty rate in the country, meaning we need our state resources to help our "resident poor".

The schools serving Hispanic communities are falling behind both because they are not prepared for the increase in the number of students resulting in overcrowded classes and they teach at a slower rate to translate materials into both English and Spanish. Evidence of that is our declining public school test scores.

I did not suggest that drugs are the primary issue with illegal immigrants. So, your premise that I don't live in a border state was off and it is pretty clear, that wherever you live, you are out of touch the reality that illegal immigration is putting on communities.

Regarding people overstaying visas, that is a problem, but presently not as big as the border for two reasons. People overstaying visas... had visas. My wife comes from a country where you need a visa to visit the US. To get one, you are background checked. In addition, the people overstaying visas come from a diverse array of countries and seem to have family or friends that house them. But I agree some of the issues are similar and migrants that overstayed visas should be deported. Again, we are a nation of immigrants, and I do think we could increase our legal quota of immigrants to 2 million annually. But much more than that and our system starts to breakdown. Just as importantly, if we do increase our legal immigration target to 2 million, we will need a system to assign green card immigrants to a community for five years before they are free to move, or you will get the overcrowding issues that illegal immigration has created.

To be honest, your response sounds like something you read in a newspaper rather than experienced living at ground zero.