TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): It's no accident that California became the country's richest state. It was the land of limitless opportunity.



Even if you never made millions there, you could live in what was, in effect, a middle class paradise. That's not true anymore. According to the census, almost a fifth of Californians now live in poverty. That's the highest percentage in the country. California's middle class is fleeing to Phoenix, and Reno, and Boise. Soon, the state will be comprised almost entirely of rich and poor. How did this happen? That question is rarely asked.



The answer is pretty simple -- low-skilled immigration overwhelmed California.



More than a quarter of the state's entire population, as of today, is foreign-born. Again, the highest rate in the country.



Some of these immigrants are building successful new companies in Silicon Valley. Good for them, but most of them are not. In fact, the overwhelming majority of these immigrants are on welfare. Fully 72 percent of non-citizen households in the state of California now receive aid. That compares to just 35 percent of native born households, more than double the rate.



Now, a hundred years ago, immigrants came to California for opportunity, and now they come for the benefits. Who can blame them? Democrats long ago discovered that welfare is a handy vote-buying scheme. Free stuff equals political power. So, they give more, even as native-born Californians are forced to flee an increasingly unaffordable state.

Previously:



“You're dying, we're gonna replace you”: Tucker Carlson fearmongers about immigrants replacing Americans



Tucker Carlson: California is turning into the third world because of Latin American immigrants

Tucker Carlson: California is descending into “the kind of place that Donald Trump wouldn't want immigration from”



Tucker Carlson links immigration to infertility in American men



Tucker Carlson: White nationalism isn't surprising because we are changing European society with immigration