They will make tremendous assets to their nations of origin, for many years to come.
Posted on 07/18/2002 12:52:59 AM PDT by Terridan
Bill would give nation immigrant tuition law: Utah senators sponsor college legislation much like California's.
July 17, 2002
By DENA BUNIS and MINERVA CANTO The Orange County Register
Maria Salgado is in college today because the state of California passed a law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college and university fees.
Now it's up to federal lawmakers to decide whether she can legally work here once she gets her degree.
Salgado, who lives in Anaheim, is one of thousands of illegal immigrants who are being educated in the United States. Critics say giving them a break on college tuition and then giving them green cards once they graduate would reward breaking immigration law. Supporters say these youngsters shouldn't be penalized for being brought to the United States when they were children.
California's lawmakers have sided with the undocumented students. Gov. Gray Davis signed a law last October that meant Salgado, 18, could afford to go to a community college and begin to pursue her dream to be a teacher. The law got around a federal ban on illegal immigrants qualifying for in-state fees by saying all California high school graduates are eligible for the lower fees. In some parts of the California system, that's a difference of $10,000 or more. Texas and Utah have similar laws. Two Utah Republicans in Congress are sponsoring legislation that would make it possible for people like Salgado across the nation to better afford college and then legally go to work.
Pro-immigration forces are lobbying for the legislation this week in Washington.
"These are innocent kids who were hauled here by their parents when they were young, and they should not pay the brunt of that," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. "We've already made an investment in them" by educating them through high school, he added.
Even the hint that such a law might pass is giving hope to youngsters who see education as a dead end if they cannot work legally afterward. But it's also fueling the debate over how to deal with the estimated 8 million illegal residents of the United States.
State Assemblyman Ken Maddox hopes the federal bills don't pass.
"If we grant the same privilege to those in the country illegally as to those who played by the rules, then what's the difference between being a cit izen and being in the country illegally," said Maddox, R-Garden Grove.
These measures, says Maddox, "are just another open invitation for people to cross our borders illegally and take advantage of a system the rest of us have to pay for."
A year ago, both bills - which have bipartisan support in both chambers - would have been shoo-ins as Republicans and Democrats sought to improve their relationships with immigrants, particularly Latinos. But the post-Sept. 11 atmosphere and an economic downturn may stall them, particularly in the GOP-controlled House.
Cannon is one of a small group of House Republicans who have been pushing for more liberal immigration laws. He knows, he said, that any such measure always encounters opposition.
Some immigration advocates are nonetheless optimistic that despite circumstances, the practical politics and especially the increasing electoral participation by Hispanic immigrants, will help move this legislation along.
"As election day nears, both parties want to show they are sympathetic to immigrants," said Carl Schusterman, a local immigration lawyer who says he believes lawmakers will push for this to be enacted this year. "I'm hopeful.''
It's difficult to tell how many students have taken advantage of California's law because it's so new.
"I think a lot of these people are afraid to come forward and say, 'Hey, I'm undocumented,' even though the law states it's confidential," said Kristin Clark, director of admissions at Orange Coast College. At Orange Coast, the financial difference is substan tial: $11 per credit for in-state students and $141 per credit for nonresidents.
At the University of California, Irvine, fewer than 50 students have used the immigrant in-state tuition benefit. There, in-state fees total $4,555 a year compared with $16,057 for nonresidents.
Only a change in federal law could change the prohibition against illegal immigrants working.
Cannon and Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, have introduced similar bills. So far, Hatch's is the only one that has made any progress. The Senate Judiciary Committee has sent it to the full floor, but it's unclear whether a Congress that is busy creating a new Homeland Security Department and way behind on passing the budget will get to this measure.
Hatch's bill, called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act, would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents if they are between 12 and 21, have been in the United States for at least five years, have graduated from a U.S. high school and are going to college. The bills would also repeal the ban on states letting illegal immigrants pay in-state fees.
"We cannot sit idly by while more minds and potential go to waste," Hatch said.
Salgado, 18, is keeping her fingers crossed.
Today, she is juggling summer school with a heavy work schedule that sometimes means seven-day workweeks at a fast-food restaurant where she says she is paid cash for less than minimum wage.
"I can't complain," Salgado says. "My dream was to go to college and I'm doing it."
Those who oppose granting any illegal residents legal status say these bills would be just another form of amnesty.
"If there's someone at fault here it's the parents because they subjected their children to an illegal life in the United States," said Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that supports immigration restrictions. "It's not the United States government's business to clean up after their parents' errors."
Hector doesn't see it that way. The 17-year-old was a young boy when his parents brought him to the United States from Colima, Mexico. He wants to finish his education and get a good job in the country he was brought up in.
"I dream of studying to become a social worker," said Hector, who agreed to speak on condition his last name not be used. He gave up playing soccer at school so he can work to earn money for his college tuition. He plans to use the state tuition law to go to Santiago Canyon College, where even the resident fees are too much for his mother, who is single and has four children.
Tiffany Rodriguez, a Fullerton resident whose daughter attends Michigan State University, says her daughter got a raw deal compared to California's illegal immigrants.
"I sympathize with these students' plight, but right is right and wrong is wrong," she said. "What California has done is just down and out wrong. How come my daughter has to pay an arm and a leg to attend Michigan State and meanwhile the kids down the block get a get-out-of-jail card?"
They will make tremendous assets to their nations of origin, for many years to come.
But the son of an illegal alien from Mexico or Pakisan gets the in-state rate, which is 2/3 lower than the son of the Marine must pay.
Can a nation this INSANE survive?
But the son of an illegal alien from Mexico or Pakisan gets the in-state rate, which is 2/3 lower than the son of the Marine must pay.
Welcome to George Bush's Amerika, the land where illegal aliens are treated better than our own citizens.
Rep. Chris Cannon, Bush's Point Man on Immigration, is Public Enemy Number 1
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