[FITZ]

Actually there is no dirt-cheap land for sale in Mexico which is why many of them come here because they can live in housing projects or in illegal subdivisions cheaper. Many of our immigrants have no money, no English language skills, no education past 3rd grade in Mexico. They have no money to buy houses and many can't get jobs that pay minimum wage.

This is an example of some of the neighborhoods they come from in Mexico where they use about $150 worth of discarded wooden pallets to build houses and we're seeing similar houses going up all over the place here.

[RayChuang88]

Many of our immigrants have no money, no English language skills, no education past 3rd grade in Mexico.

This is a part of the illegal Mexican immigration problem that the pro-immigration crowd doesn't want to talk about. Many of them are illiterate to the point they can't even read a Spanish-language newspaper! If they were at least the equivalent of high-school literate in Spanish they could probably eventually assimulate in to the USA because they could then learn English fairly easily.

[Dec31,1999]

and we're seeing similar houses going up all over the place here.

Sometimes zoning laws are advantageous. You just can't build structures like that here. We certainly have no lack of poor immigrants in NY. And tons of Mexicans, too! Everybody needs a place to live, so the poor pool their meager resources and live in "expensive" apartments and houses.(Because there is no inexpensive housing here.)

I agree with your welfare stance, though. I'd rather have the poor just move out or not be encouraged to come here in the first place, as mean-spirited as that sounds.