Hispansylvania - the 51st state?

Rossputin suggests that claims about a “cultural reconquest” may be a tipping point in opinion on immigration. Illegal immigration makes that issue even more urgent.

According to most estimates, the number of illegal aliens in the U.S. is at least 11,000,000.

That's a lot. Hard to imagine.

For perspective, here's a list of the populations for the seven most populous U.S. states:

California - 35,484,453
Texas - 22,118,509
New York - 19,190,115
Florida - 17,019,068
Illinois - 12,653,544
Pennsylvania - 12,365,455
Ohio - 11,435,798
(source: http://geography.about.com/cs/censuspopulation1/a/2003estimates.htm)

In other words, the number of illegal immigrants, put all together, would make up at least the seventh or eighth largest state in the union. That's if the 11,000,000 is accurate, and it probably isn't.

Were the U.S. to adopt the Senate's recent bill, which proposes allowing illegals already in the country the opportunity to "earn" citizenship--while doing next to nothing to stop more from coming in--we would in effect be admitting a 51st state, one larger than at least 43 existing states, into the U.S.

And this new state would be made up entirely of people who began their lives in the U.S. by flouting its laws, and many of whom refuse to assimilate. How much longer until something is done to curb illegal immigration? How many more Ohio's do we want to add?