Posted on 09/15/2002 2:55:49 AM PDT by sarcasm
Sunday, September 15, 2002 - Rep. Tom Tancredo's decision to ask federal immigration agents to deport an Aurora honor student has touched a national nerve, one that reaches back to the blaring contradictions of the country's chaotic immigration system, experts say.
By law, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is required to round up the estimated 8 million undocumented residents who live in the United States. But by Supreme Court decree, undocumented children have a right to a free public education through high school.
It isn't illegal for Colorado universities to admit undocumented students, but it is illegal to give them financial aid or in-state tuition.
Tancredo's decision to ask the INS to deport Jesus Apodaca, an undocumented immigrant who spoke out last month about his struggle to attend college, has touched both of those legal contradictions and the frustration that results in both advocates and foes.
Since Tancredo's demand was first published in The Denver Post on Friday, immigration officials in Denver have been flooded with calls asking them not to deport Apodaca. The Mexican consulate has received dozens of calls and e-mails condemning its support for the student.
"I've been called a jerk. I've been called a sick racist," said consulate spokesman Mario Hernandez, whose picture and telephone number were posted on an anti-immigrant website called American Patrol. "These people don't seem to see a difference between a working family looking for a better future and criminals."
For Hernandez, 18-year-old Apodaca, who crossed the border in 1997 behind his mother and older sister, is part of one of those families. For Tancredo, he is simply someone who has broken the law.
"I'm sure he is a fine young man. All that is irrelevant to whether the INS should take action," the Littleton Republican said Friday.
Doris Meissner, head of the INS under President Clinton, said both sides of that frustration are growing in a society in which millions of immigrants work, go to school and strive to succeed - all in violation of laws that are, by common consent, poorly enforced.
Employers want cheap labor and consumers want cheap houses, roads and agricultural goods. Politicians are unwilling to deny them those, Meissner said, but haven't been willing to reform the law.
Many who complained about Tancredo last week noted pointedly that he doesn't demand prosecution for thousands of employers, from fast food chains to construction companies, that hire the state's undocumented workers.
"As a country, we are highly ambivalent and full of contradictions in our collective thinking about immigration," said Meissner, who ran the agency charged with enforcing the country's immigration laws between 1993 and 2000.
"We are very proud of our heritage as a nation of immigrants," she said. "At the same time we have a basic fear of the other, a fear of strangers. It's the yin and the yang."
And Tancredo's critics say that while Apodaca and his family may be here illegally, laws do change.
When Javier Leon walked into the statehouse in Salt Lake City in February and told them he was an illegal alien, he was afraid he might be arrested.
Instead, the legislators, so moved by testimony by Leon and other undocumented students, changed state law, approving in-state tuition for undocumented students who graduate from local high schools.
"I was really amazed," said Leon, a 17-year-old student in Park City, Utah, whose father works as a landscaper and dishwasher. "I never thought I would be talking about what should be the law to people like that."
Gerry Maak, one of Leon's teachers who helped organize the testimony, said she had seen the potential of so many of her students wasted that she could no longer sit back and do nothing. The year before, she had gone with Silvia Saguero, another of her students, to the University of Utah to help her register for college classes. Although she had won $5,000 in scholarships, they found out that because of Saguero's status as an undocumented immigrant, she would not be allowed to attend.
"It is not only not fair, it is very detrimental to our society," Maak said. "These kids are going to be here, and if they are undereducated, it's not going to help anybody."
That argument has been gaining steam over the past year, in other states and in Washington.
In July, undocumented students were among a group of activists who lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill in support of the Dream Act, a proposed law that would remove federal sanctions for states that give undocumented students in-state tuition. The bill has bipartisan support, and is sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
In all, four states - Texas, California, Utah and New York - have passed laws that ease access to college for illegal immigrants. The Dream Act would also give undocumented students who go to college a special immigration status that prevents deportation.
"Jesus Apodaca is the perfect example of a kid who was brought to this country while very young, but succeeded spectacularly in his efforts to get an education. Why punish a person like this?" said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
In Utah, lawmakers say that the testimony by undocumented students in front of the Senate Education Committee was key in persuading them to extend in-state tuition benefits, despite the fact that, legally, the students have no right even to be in the United States.
"Oftentimes in these kinds of debates, politicians talk about facts and figures," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, a Republican in the Utah Senate and chairman of the state Education Appropriations Committee.
"But it's something different to see the face of child and hear the struggle the child has endured to succeed in the educational system," he said.
Not everyone agrees.
In a statement responding to the publicity surrounding Tancredo's demand, Gov. Bill Owens said simply he believed "our laws should be respected and enforced."
Rep. Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., blamed the INS, an agency that, especially since Sept. 11, has been excoriated for its ineffective enforcement.
Attempts to reach other Republicans from Colorado's state delegation, including Sens. Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and Reps. Scott McInnis and Joel Hefley, were unsuccessful.
"Jesus Apodaca and his family were betrayed. Every citizen in this country has been betrayed," Schaffer said. "They've been misled by the INS into believing that our laws are not serious."
But others also blame Congress, pointing out that the legislative branch has, by choice, given the INS limited funds but enormous responsibilities.
That's partly a recognition that really enforcing the country's immigration laws would not only cost billions more, it would be unlikely to make many voters happy, said Dan Griswold, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.
"If we try to enforce the letter of the (immigration) law, large sectors of government would grind to a halt," Griswold said. "To me, the only logical answer is to change the law."
We are not fooled, we are well aware you will probably read this thread, so let's just say the only nerve getting touched is your own Mickey. Your paper purposely writes stories in support of lawbreakers because you know that will upset and inflame people, the vast majority of whom didn't call the INS and ask the student not be deported, but rather agree with Tancredo. You know as well as anyone illegal immigration is a crime, and a newspaper has a duty and a responsibility to set an example as a spokesman for a community.
Just for the record, maybe you can do a story on it tomorrow, what laws can I break and get away with?
And deport one trial lawyer for illegal immigrant deported.
How much pity is there for a US citizen who wishes to attend a particular state college and falsely claims that state's residency and is caught? It might seem unfair but the taxpayers of a state pay for those colleges and someone that isn't a legal resident is out of luck.
I would prefer a forced march across the border for Mexican illegals.
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