Posted on 11/23/2008 8:29:04 PM PST by Coleus
Undocumented residents living in the country illegally can go to college here. That message was heard loud and clear by roughly 40 Hispanic parents and children who participated in a seminar Thursday night at Passaic High School designed to encourage undocumented immigrants to pursue higher education. Diana Esparragoza, 16, a sophomore at the high school who moved to the United States from Colombia when she was 7, said she was heartened to learn she could go to college. She said she dreams of being a psychologist or a lawyer but she wasn’t sure if she needed a Social Security number to be accepted into college.
"I thought I would just graduate, and get a job, and whatever," said Esparragoza, in the high school’s auditorium. "[But] I get good grades and I didn’t want to put it to waste." It was the first time Passaic High School had sponsored an information night to help undocumented immigrants learn their rights, said Schools Superintendent Robert Holster. The number of undocumented students has risen over the past five to eight years and is now as high as 20 percent of the student body, he said.
A student’s legal status often means parents keep themselves in the dark about preparing students academically and understanding educational rights, regardless of legal status. Under state policy, it’s illegal for pre-K-12 public schools to ask about a student’s immigration status, said Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. And, across the nation, pre-K-12 school officials must admit a child even if a school knows the child’s legal status is in question, according to a federal court decision, Belluscio said.
At the college level, policy varies from state to state, said Paul Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities. In New Jersey, students do not need proof of legal residency to apply to publicly funded four-year institutions. However, to pay lower, in-state tuition, a student must prove legal residency for at least a year, Shelly said.
The Spanish-language seminar Thursday evening was sponsored by a program at the high school called College Readiness Passaic, an initiative of the school district that is funded by two federal grants. Guest speakers included two Passaic County Community College officials and an immigration attorney. Maritza Davila, assistant admissions director of Passaic County Community College, which opened a new campus in Passaic on Paulison Avenue this fall, stressed that the college "isn’t the police" and won’t ask for citizenship documents. She warned, however, that fewer financial-aid options are available to undocumented residents.
And Obama will pay for their mortgage and gas.
A country can never have too many lawyers. sarc/off
If one reads these stories they are bound to imagine that all or most illegal alien children are star pupils who want only to go to college and become model citizens. Having taught high school I can tell you that this was not my experience. Of course, what do I know, I’m not a reporter....
Or politicians. Next thing, illegals will be able to run for President. /sarc
The Universities are publicly subsidized because we are investing in our young citizens. The illegals should be paying what other foreigners have to pay to go to college here. Once again, the public is getting screwed.
they have colleges in Mexico and Columbia what are wrong with those colleges?
oh, yea, they want to take our college spots from Americans.....
That's what this country needs is another lawyer. A pro-illegal alien lawyer at that, I would wager.
Well, we need more lawyers because illegal aliens aren’t receiving their “rights”, you know. So they have to college to become lawyers. See how that works?
Well, they could make up some SSN numbers like some of them did in the Dallas Independent School District...
Some were even given SSN numbers from the administrators...
So go ahead make some up go to school on our dime...
It’s all too little too late to stop any of this...
I hope the Border Patrol is reading this and arrests and deports all of them including their parents!
“It’s all too little too late to stop any of this...”
The law could be changed to make it a death penalty for being an illegal alien!
Are you kidding? Local police and ICE can’t touch them once they’re in, never mind the Border Patrol.
And we’re not even talking about “sanctuary cities”. This is everywhere.
The most ridiculous statement wasn’t in the article. The comment from Nurse spread the myth the poor illegals won’t get a return on the tax dollars they do pay.
What a crock. Prison, welfare, education, health. I’d say they get quite a bang for their buck.
Next year we will be sending our daughter to college and paying through the nose. We will get no financial aid, we will not get preferences for admission, we will get no help at all. Illegal invaders not only are blessed with Affirmative Action so they will get the jobs ahead of kids like my daughter, but they will get to go to college for free.
We work hard, pay our taxes and saved for her college education from the day she was born. We are going to be short thanks to the big drop in the markets.
This is total BS.
Change the law and exterminate them!
I know what it is now, I live in San Diego and was forced out of business by illgals in 92.
Seems to me you need a Social Security Number to get a driver’s license, enroll in college, or apply for financial aid.
As soon as they use a false SSN, they have committed a felony. They should then be prosecuted and deported. End of story.
Just adding a few words
When we returned to Texas, of course we had to pay out of state tuition, while, illegals get in State tuition rates if they don't qualify for free tuition totally.
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