With the silly season in full swing, candidates are taking sides in an effort to wrangle enough votes to get or stay in office. California is ripe with many contentious races and the home to the largest Tea Party organization and illegal immigration population.
California’s budget has wallowed in the red the past two years, many tie the root-cause to benefits doled out to illegal aliens. Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, a Republican says he will put end to all taxpayer-funded services to undocumented immigrants, including denying their children public education and health care.
“We’re just out of money … and one of the reasons the state’s in trouble is because of illegal immigration,” said Poizner, who claimed California spends more than $10 billion annually on services for illegal immigrants, in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I’m going to be the truth teller in this campaign. As governor I’m going to stop illegal immigration once and for all,” Poizner, said at the California State GOP convention.
The tough talk didn’t sit well within the Latino community. Univision, the largest Spanish language network, said Poizner’s statements were the beginning of “a frontal war against our community.”
The budgetary talk didn’t get any easier from Digger’s Realm. In a story written by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, LA County could expect to pay more than $1 billion per year on illegal immigrations and their children.
“This number does not even include the costs of education.”