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.
Perhaps, you could explain why you deserve to be here, despite being illegal.
And why you deserve your seat in that exclusive high school, while a legal immigrant or a natural-born American does not.
Precisely what are you bringing to the party that allows you to be above the law that everybody else has to follow?
Foreign Criminal Invaders need to be expelled. They are clogging up our welfare and our prisons, doing the rapes, murders and child abuse Americans won’t do.
That question was asked almost a year-and-a-half ago.
And you still don't have an answer to it.
An illegal alien remains illegal -- a law breaker -- a criminal -- an uninvited (and unwanted) guest -- a base cheater unwilling to follow the rules and pay the price for legitimacy.
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