Prerequisites

In order to complete this project, I chose the following materials:

+ Dedicated terminal server:

• Asus DSAN-DX server motherboard and power supply
• 2 network interfaces (eth0 and eth1; on motherboard)
• 750GB Hard Disk
• 3.25GB RAM
• CD-ROM drive

+ Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop CD

+ 100Mbps switch

Hardware Setup

Here is the way that we set up our server. The physical terminal server has two NICs: one for connecting to the internet, and one that creates a LAN for all of the thin clients. We also got a fast switch for communication between the terminal server and the clients. Not shown, we had a monitor, keyboard, and mouse hookup for all the machines.

Preparing the Thin Clients

Any old machines that you have lying around can be turned into thin clients, and with no loss of data or major reconfigurations necessary! Well, the machine can’t be too old, as it needs to support net booting, or PXE. This usually depends on the BIOS, and most modern BIOSes support PXE. If your BIOS doesn’t support PXE, you can get a custom ROM chip that you can install in your network card that will allow it, but this is usually a non-issue. Another thing you must be aware of is that PXE currently does NOT work with wireless networks. You will need a wired connection to a switch on all of the thin clients that you want.

To prepare the thin clients for use, go into the BIOS for your machines and change the boot priority to use PXE, netboot, network, or your network card’s name. If you are using a Dell PC as a thin client, you may need to enable PXE under Network settings in the BIOS before netbooting will show up as an option on the Boot menu.

Preparing the Switch

If your switch happens to be a router, you must turn off the router’s DHCP functionality before you can use thin clients. The way that we are configuring this, the terminal server will be a DHCP server (something that assigns IPs to devices on the network.)

Installing Ubuntu 10.10

Firstly, even though this is a server, do not install Ubuntu Server edition. If you do, the process of getting a GUI running on the thin client will take more time than necessary. Install Ubuntu 10.10 by doing the following: (quite generic at this point)

• Put the Ubuntu 10.10 desktop CD in your server’s CD drive
• Press <Enter> when you see the purple start-up screen with the Universal Access logo to access the Ubuntu install menu. Select “Install Ubuntu” from the menu.
• When the installer appears, progress through the installation wizard as normal, making sure that you wipe the disks on the machine and do a clean install. (This is a dedicated machine, you know)

Once you have finished the Ubuntu install and are sitting at a clean 10.10 desktop, it’s time to configure it.

Configuring the Terminal Server

Instructions largely based on the LTSP Quick Install guide on the Ubuntu Wiki.

Once you log into Ubuntu for the first time, you will need to configure it to be a terminal server. Make sure that your NIC’s are configured so that eth0 is facing out to the internet (ISP provided hostname and DNS) and that eth1 is plugged into the switch. Since eth1 is going to act as a DHCP server, set its IP address as 192.168.0.1. Next, install the LTSP server by opening a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and executing the following:

$ sudo apt-get install ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server

This will install the Linux Terminal Server Project, DHCP3, and all the other packages necessary for you to boot your thin clients. Next, open the DHCP server config:

$ sudo nano /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf

Edit your dhcpd.conf file to match the settings of your eth1 NIC. Next, save the file and restart the server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Now the DHCP server should be ready to go. You should see an [OK] message in the output of the restart. If it fails, check your config file and your IP on eth1 and try again.

Next, lets create user accounts for all the thin clients that you are going to use. This is recommended so that you can easily run processes assigned to each client. Go to System > Administration > Users and add a new standard user account with a name that is easily identifiable (thinclient01, thinclient02, etc…) and when you are finished, it is time to build the thin client system. Open up a terminal and run the following command:

$ sudo ltsp-build-client

This command will download from the internet all of the files required for a Ubuntu LTSP minimal installation and put them into the /opt/ltsp/i386 directory. This directory will be very important later on in this tutorial.

Once the thin client image is done being prepared, you are ready to boot your first thin client.

Booting the first thin client

Make sure that your switch is on, all cables are properly connected, and that you have a mouse, keyboard and monitor plugged into your thin client. Make sure you have also completed the steps in “Preparing the thin clients” above. Turn on the power to the thin client and make sure that it is set to boot from network. You should see that the thin client is assigned an IP and begins to download the image that you built on the terminal server previously. After seeing the Ubuntu logo you should be at a login screen, and your IP address of the machine should be in the corner.

Attempt to log in with the account you created above. Either you will be successful, or you won’t be. If you are not successful, first check your password and try again. If you are still not successful, go back to the terminal server and run the following command, which will update the server’s SSH keys and allow you to log in:

$ sudo ltsp-update-sshkeys

Try logging in again and this time an SSH session will be started connecting you to a remote X session on the server. While this is ideal for schools and workstations, all the processing power is being done on the server, so it’s no different than having a remote desktop session open on a computer that is running a different OS. This is not what we have set out to do, but it’s a great interim to be at.

On the terminal server, open the Thin Client Manager (System > Administration > Thin Client Manager) and make sure that you see your thin client listed under “Connected Clients.” Also, right click your thin client and click on “Execute command.” The command you want to execute will start an X terminal on the thin client, but using the thin client’s processing power, not the server’s:

ltsp-localapps xterm

You should see a terminal window popup on your thin client that reads [user]@[yourthinclientname]. The thin client’s name is the same as the one that was listed on the login window. Now try to ping Google:

$ ping google.com

This should fail, as we haven’t set up networking on the thin client’s local applications yet. However, if you open a regular terminal on the thin client (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and try to ping Google, you should be able to reach it. Why is this? The reason is because you are running this terminal on the terminal server, which already has access to the Internet via eth0. What we need to do now is configure the terminal server and the thin client image so as to set up a NAT between the internet (eth0) and the switch (eth1).

Setting up a NAT

Instructions largely based on the Thin Client NAT Howto on the Ubuntu Wiki.

On your terminal server, open up the DHCP server configuration once more:

$ sudo nano /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf

Next, look for the text “option routers [eth1 IP]“. If you do not see it, add it into the main block:

subnet 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
	...
	option routers 192.168.0.1;
}

Save and close the file. Now, reboot the DHCP server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Now, open the system configuration file:

$ sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

And look for the following command, adding it if it isn’t in the file:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Save and close the file. Now run the following three commands:

$ sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
$ sudo iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --jump MASQUERADE  --source 192.168.0.0/24
$ sudo sh -c 'iptables-save > /etc/ltsp/nat'

These will enable the NAT and make requests from the thin clients able to be forwarded to the right places on the terminal server.

Now, right click on the network icon on the Ubuntu menu like before and click on Connection Information… to find out what the DNS server you are using is for eth0. This is important so that you can route the thin client requests on from the terminal server to the internet. Copy down the IP of the DNS server and once more edit the dhcpd.conf file, this time including the line “option domain-name-servers YOUR DNS IP;” and then restart the DHCP server one final time:

$ sudo nano /etc/ltsp/dhcpd.conf

subnet 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        ...
        option domain-name-servers [DNS IP];
}

$ sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Reboot the thin client, open a local terminal and ping Google again. It should be working! If not, check your DHCP server configuration and make sure you have IP forwarding enabled. Also make sure that all your IPs are correct in your configuration files!

On the terminal server, it is time to install openssh on the thin client image, which is required for the next step. The way that we will do this is by running the following commands:

$ sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386

You will now be inside the LTSP client image. It will say root@[your computer name]#. The first thing you will want to do is change root’s password:

# passwd root

This is important since you will need to log in as root later on and will require a password. Install the openssh server and exit out of chroot:

# apt-get install openssh-server
# exit

Now, update the thin client image and reboot the thin client:

$ sudo ltsp-update-image

After logging in to the thin client, start the openssh server. Start a local terminal and type the following:

$ su -
# /etc/init.d/ssh start

Now start all of your thin clients, log in, and make sure an SSH server is running. You can test to make sure by going to the terminal server and trying:

$ ssh [THIN CLIENT IP]

This should bring up a login prompt. If it does not, make sure that the server is running and try again.

Installing and deploying Folding@Home and Origami

I would recommend that you create a Folding@Home team first. This helps you track the performance of all your thin clients as one unit, not as each individual client. Fill out this form to create a team and get a team number. Another thing that you’ll need is a passkey. Go here to get one once you have a team number and username.

On the terminal server, this is a pretty straightforward process. First, install Origami:

$ sudo apt-get install origami

Change to your home directory and make a file called .origamirc:

$ nano ~/.origamirc

Put in this file a list of all the thin client IPs that you know, separated by line. You can look at the IPs of currently logged in thin clients in the thin client manager we installed previously. The file should look similar to the following:

192.168.0.20
192.168.0.21
192.168.0.22
192.168.0.23
etc.

Finally, execute the following commands to start Folding@Home and finish up your cluster!

$ sudo origami install  -u [USERNAME] -t [TEAMNUMBER]
$ sudo origami deploy -u [USERNAME] -k [PASSKEY]

Be prepared to enter your root password A LOT. At least 3 times for every thin client. Also be prepared to wait quite a long time. Finally, make sure that you keep your thin clients and terminal server powered on all the time, as every time that you reboot you will need to do the following:

• Start the terminal server and thin client manager
• Start the thin clients and log in to each
• Start openssh on each of the thin clients (if it doesn’t start automatically)
• Run the Origami deploy command

Now that Origami is installed and deployed, you can check the status of each individual thin client by running the following command on the terminal server:

$ sudo origami network-status

And the status of your current machine:

$ sudo origami status

Conclusion

Congratulations! In 2,113 words you have learned how to install a Linux terminal server and a Folding@Home cluster, and with no cost to you except time and some old hardware! Enjoy helping to cure cancer from the comfort of your own home!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Furman University for providing the awesome, high performance server and four thin clients for this project! This was a great opportunity for me to do something that I’ve never had the resources to do at home.

Adolescent Obesity: a hefty problem

Adolescent obesity is an increasingly common and dangerous issue facing American children. In fact, the Center for Disease Control asserts that “during the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%.” (CDC) According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), obesity is defined as when someone weighs more than 10% of their recommended weight based on various factors such as height and body type. (par. 2) Most cases of obesity aren’t due to any medical maladies, but simply to the fact that today’s adolescents eat more than they burn off during exercise, assuming they get any exercise at all. In an article on childhood obesity, the Mayo Clinic claims that common factors that cause obesity also include one’s home situation and that “if [a] child comes from a family of overweight people, he or she may be more likely to put on excess weight, especially in an environment [with] high-calorie food […]” (par. 4). High stress levels are partly to blame as well, especially if there has been a great family tragedy such as a death or divorce that could drive kids to have comfort foods to help deal with their stress.

No matter how kids start overeating, however, obesity has disastrous effects which can last a lifetime. The most serious consequence of obesity is an early death. William H. Dietz of the New England Medical Center states that while “few studies have examined the long-term effects of childhood obesity on adult disease […] obesity present in childhood or adolescence seems to increase the likelihood of adult morbidity and mortality” (par. 1). Obesity that starts when a child is very young often will develop into a lifelong problem, and according to a 1993 aggregation of studies on childhood obesity, “about a third (26 to 41%) of obese preschool children were obese as adults, and about half (42 to 63%) of obese school-age children were obese as adults. For all studies and across all ages, the risk of adult obesity was at least twice as high for obese children as for nonobese children” (Serdula, Ivery and Coates). Other effects of obesity include everything from sleeping disorders to Type II diabetes. Heart attacks and blood clots are more common among sufferers.

You Deserve a Break Today: Fast Food as a Lifestyle

A root cause of much of the obesity facing American children today, fast food isn’t the healthiest meal that one can consume, but it is the cheapest, which is a common reason that lower income families tend to eat more of their meals at fast food restaurants. According to a study by Jason P. Block, MD, of the Tulane University School of Medicine, “the link between fast food restaurants and black and low-income neighborhoods may contribute to the understanding of environmental causes of the obesity epidemic in these populations” (Block, Scribner and DeSalvo). From my own experience, for under $8 at McDonalds, one can get 2 McDouble cheeseburgers, a medium tub of fries, a large soda, and a small dessert. The McDonalds Nutrition Calculator estimates that this meal weighs in at 1,412 calories and 70 grams of fat (McDonalds Inc.). If I were to consume such a meal, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet I’d be taking in 70.6% of my daily calories, and a whopping 108% of my daily fat quota! The cheapness, tastiness, and speed of fast food resturants make them ideal for low income families and those who are unemployed. In moderation, fast food is extremely beneficial in today’s society. Balanced with healthier meals and exercise, fast food resturants provide a valuable and convenient service, but when fast food is the only food one consumes, big problems start occurring very quickly. Consider independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who in his documentary Super Size Me underwent an experiment in which for 30 days he would only eat McDonalds meals, 3 per day (Spurlock). A press release by McDonalds UK agrees with the claims of Spurlock’s documentary, explaining that “the reality here is that [Spurlock] ate a one dimensional diet of more than 5,000 calories a day – that’s twice the recommended amount for adult males, while he goes from being a highly active individual, to purposely stopping all physical activity. […]It’s hardly surprising then that this had an impact on his body” (McDonalds Inc.).

Exiled from McDonald Land: Regulating Fast Food Advertising

As noted in my intro paragraph, fast food sales are heavily dependent on brand recognition, and food advertising starts young. Adolescents are exposed to more advertising than ever before with the advent of new mediums such as the Internet and Internet-enabled phones. According to an article by epidemiologists Mary Story and Simone French on the effects of fast food on children, US adolescents spend a combined $140 billion each year on all products (par. 4). Parents who allow their children to watch television from a young age are letting marketers mold their children’s minds. Story and French’s article continues by claiming that “a child’s first request for a product occurs at about 24 months of age” and that “requests are often for the brand name product” (3). According to Super Size Me, “Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald’s,” (Spurlock) and it’s a known fact that advertising agencies that target children will create ads specifically instructing kids to bug and pester their parents to buy brand name products. I remember a 90’s television ad for Nickelodeon Magazine in which young children found devious ways to ask their parents for “Nickelodeon Magazine, Please!” (Viacom Inc., 1997) and fast food companies are just as guilty of this tactic. The FCC caught wind of these advertising tricks in 1990 and passed the Children’s Television Act (CTA), which “limit[s] the amount of commercial matter which may be aired in certain children’s television programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays” (Federal Communications Commission, 2010). This act created a minimum of a 3-hour block in which noncommercial children’s TV could be aired on every licensed TV station. Combined with the Public Broadcasting System, there exists child-friendly TV which is free of fast food ads. This didn’t satisfy everyone, however, and two California cities, San Francisco and Santa Clara, have recently taken their regulation to the extreme.

Where’s the Parenting? The Argument against Fast Food Ad Censorship

In November, 2010, the city of San Francisco passed an ordinance to ban toys from McDonalds Happy Meals in the name of fighting childhood obesity. Proponents of the ordinance claim that it will “spare the health of millions,” (CNN) but opponents say that it is the job of parents, not the government, to regulate advertising influences on kids. Children can’t legally enter contracts, meaning they can’t make money, and thus their purchasing power is limited to the funds that parents give them. San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed the toy-banning ordinance, explaining that “Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat, especially when it comes to spending their own money,” (CNN) but his veto was overturned. His argument stands, however, and if parents want to allow their kids to buy fatty foods, it should be their right to do so.

Television advertising is extremely effective on children, but the ads themselves should not be censored. Exposure to such ads should be censored by good parenting. If an adolescent has a strong foundation of beliefs that promote healthy eating, and is reinforced by their parents, then they will be less likely to give in to the pulls of advertising agencies. The problem can go both ways, however, and if children are told by their parents that they’re too fat, they’re more likely to develop eating disorders of the opposite kind such as anorexia nervosa. What kids need to learn is that fast food can be a beneficial and healthy part of their lives if used in moderation. Although children are spending more money than ever on food, their ability to obtain the money they spend rests with their parents. If a child’s parents talk to him/her about the values of healthy eating, and prevent them from eating at fast food restaurants too often, the child will likely adopt his/her parents’ values.

In conclusion, advertising in the fast food industry should not be regulated because doing so would be to treat the proverbial symptoms of the problem, not the disease itself. Although children are influenced greatly by ads, parents place the children in front of the TV. Parents and schools are responsible for buying or making meals for children, and the field of public education is already heavily regulated in terms of what type of food it can serve and what type of food ads can be displayed. Regulating ads to the extent of banning McDonalds from giving away Happy Meal toys is nothing short of unconstitutional, and while children may want to get a Happy Meal only for the toy, it is ultimately the responsibility of the parent to grant or deny the child his/her wish.

Works Cited

American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry. Obesity in Children and Teens. May 2008. 4 December 2010 <http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/obesity_in_children_and_teens>.

CDC. “US Obesity Trends.” 1 September 2010. CDC.gov. 6 December 2010 <http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html>.

Federal Communications Commission. “Children’s Educational Television.” 22 September 2010. FCC.gov. 6 December 2010 <http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/childtv.html>.

Martinez, Michael. “San Francisco overrides mayoral veto, bans Happy Meals with toys.” CNN 24 Nov. CNN. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/11/23/california.happy.meals.ban/>.

Mary Story and Simone French
Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2004, 1:3doi:10.1186/1479-5868-1-3

Mayo Clinic Staff. Childhood Obesity: Complications. 9 October 2010. 4 December 2010 <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-obesity/DS00698/DSECTION=complications>.

McDonalds Inc. “McDonalds Nutritional Calculator.” 2010. McDonalds Canada. 5 December 2010 <http://www.mcdonalds.ca/NutritionCalculator/index_en.html>.

McDonalds. “McDonald’s UK position on ‘Super Size Me’.” August 2004. McDonalds Press Releases. 12 October 2007 <http://web.archive.org/web/20071012135323/http://mcdonalds.co.uk/pages/global/supersize.html>.

Serdula, et al. “Do Obese Children Become Obese Adults? A Review of the Literature.” Preventative Medicine 22.2 (1993): 167-177.

Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock. 2004.

Thomas N. Robinson; Dina L. G. Borzekowski; Donna M. Matheson; Helena C. Kraemer
Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preferences
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(8):792-797.

Viacom Inc. “Nickelodeon Magazine ad.” 1997. Youtube. 6 December 2010 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5VFxeikXPg>.

William H. Dietz. Childhood Weight Affects Adult Morbidity and Mortality
J. Nutr. 1998 128: 411S-414S

Not Just Money: the “Cost” of Illegal Immigration

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, California has the largest population of illegal immigrants in the United States, totaling 2.6 million illegal immigrants in 2009.[1] Over the past 20 years, California’s unemployment rate for legal residents has more than doubled[2], and illegal immigration is mostly to blame. Lax security measures combined with the fact that companies are able to hire undocumented workers for well-below minimum wage makes it extremely difficult for a legal worker to find a low-skill job in California. A popular argument in support of illegal immigrant labor is that illegal aliens do jobs that most Americans won’t do. The problem with this argument is that Americans would do the work of cheap illegal laborers if they were paid a fair wage. According to a study on illegal labor, illegal immigrants are paid on average $5.45 per hour with an annual income of $8,982.[3] Compare this to California’s minimum wage of $8.00 per hour with an annual income of $16,640.[4] That’s nearly double what illegal workers are paid, and as long as companies aren’t under legal pressure to change their ways they will continue to hire cheap illegal labor. “Undocumented workers” as they are called earn money and reap the benefits of living in the United States, but they don’t pay any taxes except for the sales tax. The California sales tax has the highest rate in the nation at 8.25% in 2010.[5] The tax is extremely prohibitive for California’s residents, especially on expensive items, and it needs to be because it’s one of the only taxes that 2.6 million benefit receiving people pay in the state. Some illegal immigrants are known to pay social security tax, but are few and far between, and none of them use real social security numbers, so the state’s best bet is to have a high sales tax. One of the most expensive benefits that illegal aliens receive is absolutely free healthcare. California’s Department of Health Care Services estimated that in 2009, the total cost of healthcare and emergency room visits for illegal immigrants was $1.2 billion[6] in taxpayer money; not to mention the fact that illegal immigrants crowd the emergency rooms for all their diseases since most can’t afford to go to a private clinic. Legal citizens who have actual emergencies can’t get care as fast when everyone with a common cold is in front of them in line! As a result of paying for healthcare for illegal immigrants, California has been forced to close over 70 hospitals[7] since 1996. Most of the hospitals that closed were in southern California, which makes sense since southern California is closer to the US/Mexico border. Illegal immigrant healthcare not only costs a fortune, but it also decreases the availability and quality of care for legal citizens who need it. For a state that is $53 billion[8] in debt, California has no cash to spare supporting healthcare illegal aliens who don’t even pay any taxes to support the system in return.

While healthcare for illegal immigrants may be expensive, another cost comes at the expensive of public health. One disease that has been devastatingly destructive and is largely due to illegal immigration is tuberculosis (TB). According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the TB rate in the US is extremely low (4.6 cases per 100,000 people in 2006),[9] but California’s rate is much higher. In California, TB rates are higher, and the CDC reports that “seven states (California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas) reported more than 500 cases each for 2006; combined, these seven states accounted for 60% (8,259) of all TB cases.” 9 A leading cause of California’s high TB rates is illegal immigration, as while the US TB rate is low, that of Mexico is 5 times higher than the US national average (20 cases per 100,000 in 2007.)[10] Illegal immigrants are arriving in California while actively carrying the disease, and when outbreaks occur, they spread like wildfire. Dr. Reuben Granich of the CDC linked a new version of TB to illegal immigrants, asserting that:

“Evidence of [the new disease] has surfaced in 38 of 61 California health jurisdictions, and it could ‘threaten the efficacy of TB control efforts,’ Granich said. The infected were said to be four times as likely to die from the disease and twice as likely to transmit the disease to others … Reluctant to label the infected as ‘illegal’ or even ‘undocumented’ aliens, the report notes that of the 407 known cases of MDR-TB, 84% were ‘foreign-born’ patients, mainly from Mexico and the Philippines who’d been in the U.S. less than five years. The percentage of TB cases among the ‘foreign-born’ jumped from 29% in 1993 to 53% as of last year.”[11]

And it’s not just TB. Other diseases such as malaria, leprosy, and even HIV are known to be carried and spread by illegal aliens. It is expensive to treat many of these diseases, as the most expensive TB drugs cost over a million dollars per person.[12] When the unemployment rate and cost of living in California are so high, the last thing it needs are outbreaks of deadly diseases with extremely expensive treatment costs.

The greatest cost to California’s economy regarding illegal immigrants is education. According to a 2004 report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), illegal immigration is costing the state of California over $10.5 billion per year, and “$7.7 billion a year to school the children of illegal aliens who now constitute 15 percent of the student body.”[13] In addition to the high cost of educating illegal immigrants, the quality of education received is debatable. Bilingual education programs add additional costs to the overwhelming figures above, and arguably do more harm than good for everyone involved, including legal citizens, but since a majority of illegal aliens in schools are English Language Learners, more of these special programs must be put in place. California’s state government, in spite of all of these expenses, is doing everything in its power to help illegal immigrants out, and is even cutting them a break in their education expenses. This November, California’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of a policy that “allowed the state’s higher education institutions to continue their policy of allowing certain unlawful immigrants to pay in-state rates,”[14] meaning that illegal immigrants who don’t pay any taxes to support California’s universities can attend school for the same amount of money as a legal resident who does pay taxes which the cheaper in-state tuitions are meant for. Since the illegal immigrants aren’t paying any taxes, the state is losing money on every illegal they admit to their public universities, which just raises the cost of tuition that much higher for legal residents and out-of-state students who pay the most of all. The University of California has realized that they are losing money, and have approved a plan to raise tuition rates by 8% in 2011.[15] Many California students are recognizing the fact that illegal immigrants combined with existing debts are driving up the price so much for legal residents that it makes no sense to go to a California university, and thus they are moving away to out-of-state schools instead of traditionally going to a California public university, which generates even less revenue for California. This system is not sustainable in the slightest!

Drugs, Terrorists, and Violence: how Illegal Immigration threatens our National Security

Illegal immigration in California isn’t just a threat to California, but to the rest of the country. In addition to the cost of illegal immigration, our national security is also at risk. Drug cartel operations have infiltrated Mexico, and drug lords have bribed Mexican police officers and politicians to insure that their crimes can continue smoothly. These drug cartels most of their weapons from the United States, and illegal immigrants often smuggle drugs and weapons over the border. Border security is notably lacking near California’s southern border. US Border Patrol agents have been fighting a longstanding and costly war on drugs, and in the process over 28,000 people have been killed and over $10 billion have been spent[16] trying to defeat the drug lords. Without secure borders, however, illegal immigrants, whether violent or not, will continue to flood in. The US Border Patrol is far from being as effective as it could be, however, as corrupt patrol agents have been looking the other way or actively assisting terrorists enter the United States, and according to a report on corruption in the Border Patrol, over 60% of US Border Patrol applicants who were given background checks were rejected, and only 10-15% of applicants were screened![17] Kevin Perkins, an FBI investigator, wonders if these corrupt agents are “willing to waive through a carload of drug traffickers or illegal aliens, why wouldn’t they be willing to waive through a carload of terrorists or a vehicle equipped with an explosive device?”17 and his concerns are well-based. During the fall elections of 2010, California voters attempted to legalize marijuana through proposition 19 in the hope that through creating a legal market for recreational use of marijuana, drug cartels would lose their market to in-state competition. Due to decreased demand, supporters of the proposition hoped that these drug lords would stop coming to California, because after all, California is the number one purchaser of marijuana in the United States. During the election, however, prop 19 was defeated, and thus the demand remains the same. Illegal immigrants still have the incentive to cross the border with drugs, and as they say, if there’s a will, there’s a way. Opponents of prop 19 counter-argue that legalizing marijuana wouldn’t do much to stop the border wars. In an investigative report on drug violence and prop 19, David Shirk of the Transborder Institute at San Diego argues that “the reality is that you would probably have to legalize consumption of marijuana throughout the United States, or in several significantly sized states, to have any kind of reverberations here in Mexico,”[18] making it not a very viable option for helping to protect our borders. A much better option: increased border security.

When illegal immigrants are caught committing crimes inside the United States, many are not deported, and instead are taken to state, federal, and local prisons, which, by the numbers, are getting a bit crowded. In 2005, a report by Investor’s Business Daily asserted that “The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California’s prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces.”[19] Straining state budgets indeed, as the cost burden of incarceration on the California public totaled $1.4 billion[20] in 2004. When illegal immigrants are released from prison, they are not always deported, and repeat-offenders are common. These illegal immigrants are being fed and given a relatively safer place to live than out on the streets. They pay no taxes, not even sales taxes (since they’re in prison) and they’re getting benefits that legal, homeless citizens are not getting. The worst part is that California’s citizens are paying for these non-citizens to stay in our prisons! What’s wrong with this picture?

Noted by some as an absolutely absurd security hazard while hailed by others as an excellent solution for security hazards, the idea giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants gets people fired up. In an article discussing drivers licenses for illegal aliens, it was stated that proponents of the idea have “argued that there were many illegal immigrants driving without a license, and by giving illegal immigrants the opportunity to obtain a license and pass the required driving test, overall safety would improve.”[21] In a 2005 report on the costs of illegal immigration, FAIR argues that “in an increasingly security-conscious America, access to drivers licenses by people in the country illegally poses serious risks and undermines U.S. immigration law… illegal aliens often use aliases and phony documents, so the alien’s identity and residence is not established as a result of the drivers license process.”[22] Main problems with giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens include the fact that it makes it harder to prove that they’re illegal if they have what is usually considered to be a legal identification card. They may learn how to drive better by taking a driving test, but why are they on California’s roads in the first place? Some supporters of the idea go as far to recommend that social security numbers should be given to illegal immigrants, which basically establishes that they can get legal jobs in the United States. Armed with both a driver’s license and a social security number, illegal immigrants could easily pass as legal citizens, and these two plans begin to look very much like amnesty for illegal immigrants.

What to Do: A Look at Possible Solutions to the Problem of Illegal Immigration

While the problems which illegal immigration presents are controversial, most would agree that the current situation is far from ideal. There are many proposed solutions for dealing with illegal immigrants; some say we should actively defend the border and deport all illegal immigrants on sight, while others claim we should simply give them amnesty and citizenship. According to a poll by the Los Angeles Times in October, 2010, “48% [of likely California voters] said immigrants are a benefit to the state, and 59% said illegal immigrants who have held a job here for two years should be allowed to stay,”[23] but the poll was largely comprised of southern Californians and may not reflect the views of the entire state. Deportation of all 2.6 million illegal immigrants would have extraordinary costs, and opponents argue that there would be insufficient forces necessary to locate and transport millions of people back to their native lands in a timely manner, not to mention defending the border at the same time. Some supporters with a less-extreme view on deportation believe the best way is to first deport all of the illegal aliens that are filling California’s prisons, to systematically raid businesses that are suspected of employing illegal immigrants, and to deport all newfound illegal immigrants if they are arrested by the police in unrelated issues. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers routinely go on raids of businesses across the country, and thus far, their involvement has been extremely effective. A report about these so-called ICE Raids in 2008 found that “The enormous sweep, which ended September 27, produced 436 arrests in the San Francisco area, 420 in the Los Angeles area and 301 in the San Diego area. ICE made a point to state that 346 of the people arrested had prior criminal convictions. Of the 1,157 arrested, only 595 had outstanding deportation orders.”[24]

Completely opposed to deportation, those who support amnesty for illegal immigrants are fighting for rights and full citizenship for those who have entered the country illegally. Many supporters also support driver’s licenses and social security numbers for illegal aliens. Opponents say that giving amnesty to illegal aliens would be to reward them for their wrongdoings and would be an insult to all of the legal immigrants who wait their turn in line and work long and hard to meet the difficult requirements to become a legal American citizen. Giving illegal immigrants citizenship would force them to pay taxes, but many are uneducated and wouldn’t make enough to constitute paying any taxes, so the cost of supporting them wouldn’t decrease. Finally, allowing amnesty for illegal aliens was done before in 1986 as part of a bill that the Reagan Administration hoped would help fight illegal immigration[25] but ultimately failed, and is now hurting the cause of current supporters for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

To Conclude:

Illegal immigration is a big problem facing California and the rest of the United States, and many different solutions exist to solve it, with varying forms of success. California has been hit harder by illegal immigration than other border states, and to this day, border security remains a problem.

[1] Los Angeles Times, 2/11/2010: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/11/local/la-me-immig11-2010feb11

[2] Google Public Data, 1990-2010: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=unemployment_rate&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=state&idim=state:ST060000&tstart=631152000000&tunit=M&tlen=248&hl=en&dl=en

[3] Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), 11/2007: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecentersdfe9

[4] Careerbuilder.com, 6/04/2009: http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-1174-The-Workplace-Could-You-Survive-on-Minimum-Wage/

[5] Federation of Tax Administrators, 2/2010: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales.pdf

[6] Contra Costa Times, (archived by Free Republic), 9/12/2009: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2338410/posts

[7] Los Angeles Times, (archived by Free Republic), 10/20/2007: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1913865/posts

[8] California State Treasurer, 1/01/2010-10/31/2010: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cdiac/

[9] CDC, 3/23/2007: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5611a2.htm

[10] USAID, 6/2009: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/id/tuberculosis/countries/lac/mexico_profile.html

[11] Businessword.com, 6/24/2005 : http://www.businessword.com/index.php/weblog/comments/1598/

[12] The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration, 2010: http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_diseases.html

[13] About.com, 12/2004: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm

[14] CNN, 11/15/2010: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-15/us/california.immigration.education_1_illegal-immigrants-tuition-rates-immigration-status?_s=PM:US

[15] MSNBC, AP, 11/18/2010: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40257807/

[16] Washington Post, 9/05/2010: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302205.html

[17] Federal Times, 5/11/2010: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20100311/DEPARTMENTS03/3110304/1018/DEPARTMENTS

[18] KBPS, 10/11/2010: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/oct/11/many-us-and-mexican-authorities-say-prop-19-will-n/

[19] Newsmax.com, 3/27/2006: http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/27/114208.shtml

[20] FAIR, 11/2004: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecentersffec

[21] US Immigration Support, 2010: http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/illegalimmigrant-driverslicense.html

[22] ProCon.org, 4/13/2009: http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000842#8

[23] Los Angeles Times, 10/24/2010: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll-immigration-20101024,0,7897752.story

[24] SocialistWorker.org, 10/06/2008: http://socialistworker.org/2008/10/06/massive-ICE-arrests

[25] New York Times, 5/23/2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/washington/23amnesty.html