MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson 81

Equally bizarre is the American policy of granting instant

citizenship at our hospitals to infants of illegal aliens. We see preg-

nant women with no cash, no husband, no English and no papers

who rush to the local hospital at the last minute to bring forth a

United States citizen. The birth is a miraculous event indeed, for

in theory the infant instantaneously can anchor a new American

existence for a full array of parents and assorted relatives of illegal

status. How surreal! If an American executive and his upscale preg-

nant wife deliver a son at a corporate retreat in Cabo San Lucas,

they are headed for mountains of paperwork and expenses. The

Mexican government, of course, does not consider Joshua Evans

III a Mexican citizen by virtue of the fact that he entered the

world under Mexican skies. But even the American government

presence in Mexico is suspicious and niggardly with its gifts of

citizenship to the offspring of its own temporary expatriates, often

demanding that lawyers present all sorts of documentation at the

local consulate to prove the bona fides of the young American who

had the misfortune of being delivered outside U.S. borders.

Like most Californians, I am confused by second-generation

gang members even when they aren’t getting ready to rumble in

the emergency room. This is a growing phenomenon resulting in

part from the fact that, according to some studies, almost 40 per-

cent of both Hispanic aliens and Hispanic citizens of immigrant

background do not graduate from our state’s high schools within

the normal four years, while over 90 percent of Mexicans of all

statuses have no B.A. degree. Hundreds of gang-bangers venture

out into the rural counties to fornicate, shoot drugs, steal, rape

and murder. I pick up their needles and condoms, brandy bottles

and tampons nightly near our farm pond. Some have tried to break

into my house. At least a dozen have brazenly carted away farm

equipment, stolen fruit in front of my home, or simply beached

their cars and walked away. I confront them monthlyâ€"scowls,

threats, bad looks and allâ€"and usually reason with foolish logic

as in the following propositions: â€Å›How would you like it if I drove