I can understand Chisme's point of view. I do support legal immigration and part of what I love about living in California is the fantastic mix of cultures. Shit, my wife is a legal immigrant so....

On the other hand, illegal immigration is a huge problem here and it is understandable that people get pissed off about it. We are the high tech capital of the world, have one of the highest per captica incomes in the country, and the biggest economy of any state. Yet, our state has a serious budget problem. The public schools are shit, the condition of the roads in the Silicon Valley were just rated as the worst in the country, parks are being shut down due to lack of funding, etc. etc. So, the question comes up: "if we are such a rich state, why don't we have money for these things?" When we learn that the state of California spends over $10 billion a year (actual figure, not an exageration) on healthcare, education, etc for illegal immigrants it is natural that we get pissed off about it.