HOUSTON -- “I didn't have bicycle, so I'd borrow their bicycles,” Dr. Laura Murillo recalls of when she first moved to the United States as a child.

Murillo’s parents were immigrants from Mexico. She was the youngest of nine kids living in the Magnolia area, a low-income neighborhood in east Houston.

Murillo recalled her humble beginnings on a walking tour of the neighborhood in which she grew up.

“It certainly brings you back to earth when you see the neighborhood where you came from,” she said.

Murillo’s rise to power has led her to be selected the president of Houston's Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Murillo’s success is just one example of a trend among Houston Hispanics.

“The longer they are here they more they move up and out of poverty,” said Rice University Sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg.

The newly released Houston Area Survey found more than half of second and third generation Latino immigrants have household incomes of more than $35,000.

But the study found success tempered by growing resentment

“The anti-immigrant fervor, that these people are not learning English, that they're coming to change our country, has grown,” said Klineberg, who authors the annual regional survey.

At the root of that animosity? The controversial topic of illegal immigration.

When Houstonians were asked: How much of a problem do you think undocumented immigrants are?

Sixty-one percent of the respondents said it was a very serious problem, while 25-percent said it was somewhat serious. Only 12-percent thought it was not much of a problem.

When asked why they consider it a problem, 48-percent said illegal immigrants cause too much strain n public services like schools and hospitals.

“In the short run, babies (of illegal immigrants) are born in hospitals, but at the same time new jobs are created,” said Kleinberg.  

Overall, though, Houston is welcoming and receptive to people who are willing to work hard. Just ask Murillo.

She isn't borrowing bikes anymore, she has a Mercedes.