I do not agree with the 1st poster.

If it’s so true South America has been privy to an advanced civilization, please do tell their great achievements? Do tell about their great societies? It seems they are all too eager to leave their violent, poor countries to come into America for a better life, especially to make money.

Easy to come here in the past? WHAT? There was no welfare in the past. You had to PROVE you could support yourself and your family without ANY aid from the US Government, ie. the taxpayer’s money. Today one baby is popped out and it is an US citizen entitled to welfare! There was no welfare when Europeans immigrated here in great numbers! Go figure?

As to it not being easy to gain citizenship, why should it be? America should screen who is entering this nation. They should do background checks, they should do HEALTH checks. Why? To protect it’s citizens. What hubris to think you have a right to just WALK IN without following our Laws. How could such hubris make you a good citizen? It does NOT! I wish all such people of hubris would just walk in into Mexico and see what happens. JAIL Baby JAIL!

As for blacks scoring lower, money is not the reason. It has to do with PARENT involvement. Always has. There are school districts who have poured TRIPLE the amount of $$$$ per each “under privileged” child in our county. The results? Dismal. No return for the money, they still score the lowest scores in the county. On the other hand there have been documentaries of Teachers in poor districts who took a TRUE interest in their students & expected the very best from the students. Guess what? The Teacher got what she expected, highly performing students. Perhaps intelligent, caring parents & teachers make a difference?
Wow, imagine that? Money does not cure everything. God gave us brains, heart and moral ethics.

Stop blaming others and act nobly. Stop expecting everyone else to solve your problems. If you could manage that you just might become a better person.

Your opinion that Latin America is a “civilizational backwater” is irrelevant because even though past immigrants may have come from Europe, they were the POOR and UNEDUCATED Europeans. If they were well educated then they would not have been poor and thus have had no need to make the long journey (by boat) to the U.S.

Furthermore, your comments about crime rates prove how elementary your ability to analyse statistics (I don’t even know if you have hard stats to back any of this up anyways…) is.

Try looking at the crime rate of Hispanics in the rural and suburban parts of the country. They will be similar to the crime rates of White (and even Black) suburban and rural people.

The issue is not race, it’s class. People in the inner city will always have higher crime rates than those outside the inner city (in any country). Here, the people in the inner city just happen to be minorities.

It’s like saying test scores nationwide are lowest among Blacks and saying it has something to do with the fact that they’re Black. It’s because public education in the inner city is TRASH and that’s where the majority of minorities live.

And one last note: Legal immigration in the 19th Century is nothing like legal immigration nowadays. Back then, you barely had to do anything once you arrived at Ellis Island or wherever else. There were not nearly the amount loops that we make prospective immigrants jump through today. If it were the same case back then as it is now then why the hell are there so many illegal immigrants in the country now??????????!!!!!!!!!!! Why didn’t they come here legally if it was so easy??