The Trouble with Illegals

It's not just a matter of sneaking across the border to make a couple of bucks. Heather MacDonald, an excellent researcher, writes a lengthy article in City Journal.

Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future.

MacDonald writes a bit about the growth of the Hispanic community in the USA.

The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate—even more than unbounded levels of immigration—will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades. By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by mid-century, twice the current ratio.

Of course, Anglos are too busy buying McMansions and matching Bimmer SUV's to actually have children. This impacts the Anglo fertility rate, no? And it is good to remember that the Social Security system desperately needs a lot of young taxpayers. However:

...it’s the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

You think that's something? Get this:

The rate of childbirth for Mexican teenagers, who come from by far the largest and fastest-growing immigrant population, greatly outstrips every other group. The Mexican teen birthrate is 93 births per every 1,000 girls, compared with 27 births for every 1,000 white girls, 17 births for every 1,000 Asian girls, and 65 births for every 1,000 black girls. To put these numbers into international perspective, Japan’s teen birthrate is 3.9, Italy’s is 6.9, and France’s is 10.

Many of my acquaintances carry on about the "family values" of Hispanics, and how the Republican Party could capitalize on those values, yada yada yada.

In fact, the worst possible environment for children is a fatherless home (curiously, the only exception is when the father died prematurely.) There's no better way to produce gang-bangers, criminals, and even more illegitimacy.