By Wayne Allyn Root

Remember the famous (but sad) saying, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth.” Well I have the number one lie in America for you- “Diversity makes us stronger. Immigration makes us more prosperous.”

Sorry, but not always.

California is Exhibit A. It’s filled with immigrants. Ten million to be exact. Many of them illegal. Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California- where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau.

While California accounts for 12% of America’s population, it accounts for one third of America’s welfare checks. California leads the country in food stamp use. California has more people on welfare than most countries around the world.

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But I thought immigration made us more prosperous?

Homelessness is exploding in California- with tent encampments overrunning schools, businesses and upscale neighborhoods. California is now home to 22% of this nation’s homeless population.

California leads the nation in debt. Total state and local debt is almost $1.5 trillion. Combining state debt with California’s share of federal debt produces a debt to GDP ratio of 153%- higher than the PIGS of the EU (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain), which are all facing economic collapse and ruin.

The traffic is suffocating, miserable and unlivable. The highways and infrastructure are crumbling. The public schools are an unmitigated disaster (and that’s with the highest per pupil spending in America).

If immigration is so great for our country and illegal aliens “contribute a net positive” to society…how do you explain what’s happening in California?

I haven’t even gotten to the taxes. The income taxes, business taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes are all the highest in the nation. Why do you think that is? To pay the enormous costs of illegal immigration. To pay for the education costs, healthcare costs, police, courts, lawyers, prisons, and hundreds of different welfare programs for millions of California’s illegal aliens and struggling legal immigrants too.

But you haven’t heard the worst yet. California- the immigrant capital of America- is filthy. Perhaps the filthiest place on earth. Filthier than the slums of Calcutta. Filthier than the poorest slums of Brazil and Africa.

NBC journalists recently conducted a survey of San Francisco. They found piles of smelly garbage on the streets, used needles, gallons of urine and piles of feces- all near famous tourist attractions, fancy hotels, government buildings and children’s playgrounds.

Medical experts say the used drug needles they found can infect anyone who steps on them with HIV or Hepatitis. NBC News filmed hypodermic needles scattered on the ground as a group of preschool students walked by on their field trip to city hall.

The hundreds of piles of feces they found can also prove deadly. Medical experts report as the fecal matter dries the germs become airborne and if inhaled by children, they can lead to death.

Infectious disease expert and UC Berkeley professor Dr. Lee Riley told NBC journalists the streets of San Francisco are worse than any of the world’s most notorious slums. “The contamination…is much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India.”

I guess diversity isn’t always so grand. I guess illegal immigration isn’t always the strength of America. Clearly, immigration- in the wrong form- does not lead to prosperity. California has become unlivable. The middle class are fleeing in record numbers- many of them to Las Vegas.

California is no longer the American Dream. For native born Americans, it is the American Nightmare. A cautionary tale of what happens when you combine open borders; a pathetic welfare state; and radical liberal politicians who see taxpayers as targets to be fleeced and illegal aliens as their core constituency.

44% of Californians don’t speak English at home. It is a foreign state inside America. Soon expect to see employment ads that say, “Americans not wanted.”

California is following “the Mexican model” – ie a population with a tiny sliver of super rich elites at the top…and everyone else is dirt poor. Just like Mexico, the middle class is becoming extinct in California. This is the express train to hell.

Thanks to illegal immigration (which is always a net negative)…thanks to the joys of diversity (which doesn’t always work)…thanks to liberal politicians and voters…

California is quite simply a sh*thole.

Wayne Allyn Root is the host of “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” on Newsmax TV, nightly at 8 PM ET, found on DirecTV channel 349, Dish TV channel 216, or at http://www.newsmaxtv.com/Shows/The-Wayne-Allyn-Root-Show He is also a nationally syndicated radio host of “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” found at http://usaradio.com/wayne-allyn-root/