By historical standards, the number of immigrants living in the United States is unprecedented. Their numbers have almost tripled since 1970, from 9.6 million to 26.3 million. Translated into percentage terms, immigrants have more than doubled, from 4.8 percent in 1970 to 9.8 percent in 1998. Even at the peak of the great wave of immigration in the early 20th century, the number of immigrants living in the United States was only about half what it is today (13.6 million in 1910).

Immigration has become the determinate factor in population growth in the United States. Of the 8.6 million immigrants who indicated that they had arrived between 1990 and 1998, 42 percent represent a 20.4 million increase in the total U.S. population since 1990. Most of these are adults who have emigrated from their own countries sans educations and/or working skills. Thus, immigration has dramatically increased the supply of unskilled workers in the United States. Of those who did enter our school system, by 1998, 31 percent dropped out of high school. They, along with immigrant adults have entered our labor market at minimum wage levels, which puts them at the poverty level where they need public assistance to survive. The poverty rate for immigrants is 50 percent higher than that of natives, with immigrants accounting for one in seven persons living in poverty making the proportion of immigrant households receiving welfare 30 to 50 percent higher than that of natives.

The rapid growth in the immigrant population is a direct consequence of the large number of legal and illegal immigrants entering each year. Since all children born to immigrants are by definition natives, the sole reason for the increase in the immigrant population is new immigration. While some immigrants die and others return home, the issuance of 800,000 to 900,000 permanent residency visas and the settlement of more than 400,000 illegal aliens each year greatly exceeds deaths and out migration.

California clearly has the largest immigrant population; New York, the state with next largest number of immigrants, has fewer than half as many. 7.1 million of the immigrants in the United States are from Mexico, the largest sending country, accounting for more than five times as many immigrants as the combined total for China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. These immigrants have opted to settle in California. Even though it is only one country, the Mexican share of the immigrant population (27.1 percent) is larger than the number of immigrants from any other part of the world.

As natives, especially we Californians know all this. However, we somehow have skimmed over our immigration problem. In forging ahead with phenomenal growth, the Home Depot Corporation, within the last three years, it seems, has brought the unemployed immigrant, whether legal or illegal, before our eyes -- in our faces, so to speak. I live in the middle of a five mile Home Depot triangle. There has never been one visit to any one of those stores when I was free from a deluge of desperate boys and men attempting to overtake my car or truck. Yes, I'm aware of their confined area for unskilled workers, put up by the combined efforts of the Home Depot and the State Human Resources Department. (Human Resources Department sounds so Sci-Fi; I liked it better when it was called The State Unemployment Office). But that system has not proven that it works.

Please, I don't want to sound insensitive, but trying to find my way through a hoard of desperate seekers of work, at the entrance of the parking lot, is not my idea of sensitivity on their part or the Home Depot's part to protect my privacy and sensitivity. While I'm at it, I'd like to address the minimum wage issue in this instance. A friend of mine did try hiring one or two of these men/boys for a three-day yard clean-up project. Their demands were $10.00 per hour cash, paid daily, a guarantee of four-hours minimum per day plus lunch! Now, I don't know of any business that guarantees lunch, four-hours daily minimums, unless they are unionized, and certainly, $10.00 per hour is $3.50 past the minimum wage for temporary minimum skilled work. Of course, it goes without saying that these men/boys can't afford to work for minimum wages as public assistance funds and benefits, if they have multiple children, pays them more, whether they work or not. Judging by the extreme numbers of men/boys that hang on the walls and crowd the parking lot entrances, at all hours of the Home Depot's operation, I would say that their and the State's solution to end this problem is not working.

While immigration's impact on the United States continues to be a subject of intense national debate, there can be no doubt that the large number of immigrants now living here represents an enormous challenge for our country both in actuality and patience. No nation has ever attempted to incorporate over 26 million newcomers into its society. Moreover, without a change in immigration policy, immigration's impact will only grow as the size of the immigrant population continues to increase rapidly.

I've long since ended my anxieties and annoyances at the paces I was subjected to whenever I went to visit a Home Depot store. How, you ask? I don't shop there anymore. The local, smaller hardware, lumberyards and plumbing and electric stores have long since learned to be more competitive and more service orientated in order to re-capture their customer base. In addition to their atmospheres being quieter, slower paced and cleaner, I find their employees to be more congenial and helpful. That's more to my liking.

Overall, I would say that big conglomerates, like the Home Depots of the world, have invaded our neighborhoods with many positive effects. One of them is they have taught small businesses how to operate like big businesses and that has benefited all of us.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
This is Chuck's answer to a complaint received by a reader. Chuck went out to three Home Depot sites and observed the immigrant/ parking lot activity. His opinion was that it was a horrendous sight at two of the locations but a situation better controlled at one site. Contact him on site; http://www.4pointspress.com or direct your email to the Editor.