A Note from the Editor

A Statistical Portrait of U.S. Hispanics

Hispanic migration into the United States surged in the 1990s and, in the absence of meaningful border controls, shows no signs of abating. Half of new legal immigrants come from Latin America. Twenty-five percent are from Mexico, and these are reinforced by Mexican illegal immigrants, who constitute the overwhelming majority of illegals. They come from a country that has a long and porous border with the United States. And while they are regionally concentrated in the American Southwest, their numbers are increasing all over the nation. Census figures tracked an 87 percent increase in the Southern Hispanic population from 1990 to 2002. In the 1980s, two million immigrants arrived in the South. Four million arrived in the 1990s with almost two-thirds coming from South America. The American South is now home to one-third of U.S. Hispanics, second only to the West and more than the Northeast and the Midwest combined. North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee have the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country, with four- to six-fold increases since 1990. Hispanic populations have tripled in Alabama, South Carolina, and Kentucky.

Illegal immigration from Mexico is increasing and apprehensions by the Border Patrol are up 25 percent along our southern border and up 40 percent in the San Diego sector. In January, President Bush proposed a guest-worker plan that would give legal status to illegal aliens working in the United States as well as to those outside the country who can prove they have been offered a job. Since it is hard to get a job offer while in Mexico, many Mexicans have been heading north, hoping to get settled before Bush's program is in place. Bush's proposal was obviously a powerful incentive for more illegal immigration. Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry likewise promises to legalize illegal aliens.

Edwin Rubenstein is one of our nation's premier researchers. Many readers will recall his "charticles," written with Peter Brimelow, that were a popular feature in Forbes magazine. Dr. Rubenstein's "National Data" is a continuing series posted on the www.VDARE.com website. We invited him to take a look at America's Hispanics to see how they contribute to a number of key areas in public life, such as education, labor force participation, welfare use, and crime.

The overall results are not encouraging. This suggests that the policy of fostering mass Hispanic migration into the United States is not merely mistaken, but bodes ill for the long run.

We hope you will share Dr. Rubenstein's findings with others. There has been no national discussion about the Hispanicization of the United States, other than by politicians who claim it is a wonderful thing. The "Hispanic Indicators" published here demonstrate that it is far more problematic. No one has asked the American Majority if they want their country to be "transformed."