<p>They are not citizens. Even an out of state student pays OOS rates. Or we could send them back immediately and avoid the whole problem. Also, I’m pretty sure American kids do suffer when their parents break the law so I don’t even really know what that part of the comment means.</p>
<p>At least in my state, citizenship isn’t a requirement to obtain in state tuition. It depends on your visa status. As for citizens paying OOS fees, that also depends on the state. In mine, the criteria for this type of OOS fee waiver apply to everybody, not just undocumented students. I’m a natural born citizen, and I lost my California residency and got this fee waiver, so in my state at least it isn’t giving undocumented students something citizens don’t get. Sending them back immediately is not just wrong, it’s horrifyingly wrong. You are, as I said, ripping somebody away from the community they grew up in over their parents’ behavior and their nationality. Comparable wrongs may happen to citizens from time to time over their parents going to prison (I lost all lot when my dad went away), but we should do everything we can to prevent it, regardless of who is getting victimized. The fact that bad things happen to people who don’t deserve them isn’t an excuse to do more bad things to people who don’t deserve them.</p>
<p>Imaging that you came to California from Mexico as a young kid. You spent more time here than in Mexico. You went to school here, all your friends are from here, your childhood memories are mostly here, but then you try to get into college. You have to pay about seven times as much per unit at the local CC than your peers, and you didn’t do anything different than your friends. You don’t have an SS number, so getting work is pretty difficult. Maybe you get deported, as suggested above. Put on a bus to a country that isn’t really home. You didn’t grow up there, and you don’t know the area you are going to that well. You don’t have a living situation set up for yourself. Your friends aren’t there. Most of your childhood memories aren’t there. Now that you are branded as an illegal, you most likely will never be allowed to move back to California, where you grew up, legally. All because your parents made a choice in which you never even got to contribute.</p>
<p>I don’t accept that this is an acceptable course of action for our society, and I am glad that California does have a support system set up to work on preventing this sort of thing.</p>
<p>@Spaceship,</p>
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By the same token, when I was a minor, my parents sold their holdings in Apple stock. I am not responsible for the actions of my parents; therefore, the taxpayers should have to make it up to me financially because I have to work for a living now.</p>
<p>But seriously… My kids were also not responsible for me dragging them around the world and being educated outside the US. But it was understood that when my work visa expired, we would all have to LEAVE. There’s no way the host country would permit my kids to continue to study in the host country, let alone SUBSIDIZE their college education-- what a joke! </p>
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<p>My kids also left the US during preschool & 1st grade. They were none too happy to leave their “home” host country and friends each time we had an int’l move. THEY GOT OVER IT. </p>
<p>This link illustrates the latest immigration challenge. As you increase benefits, you increase the incentive for illegal immigrants.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/07/01/medical-staff-warned-keep-quiet-about-illegal-immigrants-or-face-arrest/”>http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/07/01/medical-staff-warned-keep-quiet-about-illegal-immigrants-or-face-arrest/</a></p>
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<p>A social security number is required. It’s the first field that has to be completed on the Bright Futures application. While FAFSA is no longer needed for the standard Bright Futures applications, it’s still required if you apply for the state “need-based” scholarships, such as the José Martí Scholarship.</p>
<p>^There are a lot of “immigration challenges,” particularly with the recent wave of kids coming in, but the article you posted does not seem reputable to me. All the sources are anonymous, for one thing.</p>
<p>just write in 000-00-0000 for social security number on Florida state forms. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2011/08/08/no_papers_no_scholarship_undocumented_students_could_lose_out”>http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2011/08/08/no_papers_no_scholarship_undocumented_students_could_lose_out</a></p>
<p>The recent wave of kids coming in have practically been invited. And for some reason we are dumping them in communities across the nation. That is just a scandal. The sources in Gators link are anonymous because our government is unfortunately not reacting well when people speak up about this self-inflicted challenged. But, that doesn’t make it untrue.</p>
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<p>Yes, this is how it works in every state I am aware of. A student’s tuition cost is determined by where their parents live and/or how much money their parents decided to earn, which are obviously decisions “[the students] themselves are not responsible for.”</p>
<p>This is pretty simple, really. Either we have immigration laws or we don’t. If we do, we enforce them.</p>
<p>I think we should enforce our immigration laws. Those kids should be taken to a center to get them cleaned up and then should be returned right to the doorstep of the head of whatever country of their origin with a full posse of reporters watching this. We really do NOT want to steal the youth of any country, and that should be the mantra. That has been a huge issue with countries as well. </p>
<p>There are many US children who are US citizens that need more support than we are giving them. A lot of laws we enforce break up families, hurt families. Yet we enforce them. There are millions of children all of over the world suffering. We try to help in a systematic way, but not in a way to abet doing illegal things, or that becomes the channel and that is what we are doing with immigration right now. </p>
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I agree. It sounds harsh, but we can’t sit back and have a forced hand in taking in the children. </p>
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At least in one case, they tried setting up a facility for them without letting the community know. The community complained, and it didn’t happen. Question – the children are supposed to be released to family members. What if they can’t find family members to take them? Is there a chance that the community the holding facility is in will become responsible for educating them (thanks to the law that says you are here you get educated for free no questions asked)? </p>
<p>There’s an old adage about how one becomes responsible for a person, after saving his life. Not completely relevant, but a lot of that holds We take in these kids, we have to take care of them by our standards. And we are not set up for that. We aren’t adequately taking care of our own in need. Charity begins at home. If we had an infrastructure to take on something like this, that’s a whole other story. Adoption has led to a baby blackmarket internationally, and parents giving up their kids, and that has gotten a lot of bad press deservedly. So really, what are we to do. I am serious about sending them back to the leaders of their home country in the limelight and forcing them to deal with the issues of taking care of their own children with the world watching.</p>
<p>The adults are released with a court date to reappear for an immigration hearing but no-one realistically ever expects to see these people again. I agree, send them back immediately if you want to stop this problem. But, we don’t want to stop it, apparently. </p>
<p>I’ve worked with illegal immigrants for decades as a literacy volunteer. This is all so hard and painful, but the truth is that this wave of immigrants is made up predominantly of indigenous people who are being pushed out of their countries for the gain of elites in their countries and here. Their well-being is of no consequence. We can’t truly educate them because they have no history of literacy in any language and that’s almost insurmountable. They are not assimilable in this generation or the next. It will be a permanent, isolated underclass. In the guise of compassion, we are allowing their communities and cultures to be destroyed. What I find interesting, working with these groups and being involved in the network of support people across the country, is how much of the media coverage focuses on small children and mothers with small children. Very misleading because at least 80% of the people coming in are teenaged males and, as we know, unattached young men in large numbers are trouble on feet. There are a lot of Americans who are going to suffer for this influx.</p>
<p>Florida has been allowing undocumented immigrant students to get scholarships and instate tuition for years. The Florida Board of Educations, which administers state financial aid programs, even gave state college financial aid officers an override code for undocumented to come in through the backdoor for state financial aid.</p>
<p><a href=“DocumentCloud”>DocumentCloud;
<p>Wow zoosermon thank you for that ’ feet on the ground’ perspective. Our media does try to pull on the heart strings with obvious political motivations.</p>
<p>There are kids who do beat the odds that Zoosermom has presented. Regardless, the fact of the matter, is that the reason these kids are sent over here, is that their lives are better off with all of the problems we have in our society over theirs. It’s not doing the whole system any good, giving this as an out to use our country as a forced dumping ground. The heart strings are pulled because this is an appalling, pathetic situation. We should feel bad about this. But it makes for other problems for us, I really think the country’s having this issue, should be forced to deal with in the world arena, front and center stage.</p>
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[quote]
What if they can’t find family members to take them?[\quote]</p>
<p>My understanding is that in such cases, they are placed with foster families. And presumably, the foster parents are compensated with taxpayer money. </p>
<p>@lizard </p>
<p>The attached memo is in reference to completing the FAFSA form, and not the Bright Futures application. Bright Futures (before this year) required a “completed” FAFSA, even though it wasn’t used in determining the merit based Bright futures award (which is why the requirement was waved this year). The override codes are used to help the student meet the state’s FAFSA requirement, not to send a valid FAFSA to the federal goverment for processing. </p>
<p>You still have to use a valid SS# to be awarded a Bright Future Scholarship. The SS# is used by the school’s financial aid department when pulling bright futures info from the state servers. That’s how the school can predict your Bright Futures award, it pulled the info from the state’s server. </p>
<p>The school’s financial aid department also informs the state when the student is enrolled, and for how many hours, by using the SS#. The state then sends the money to the school, which handles distribution.</p>
<p>It may be possible to use a false (stolen) SS#, but it has to be valid. Keep in mind that scholarship money (such as Bright Futures) can be taxable, if it’s not used for tuition or books (which could be the the case of those with Florida pre-paid, or other scholarships). Any $ that could be taxed, our friends at the IRS want to track it, and thats done with a valid SS#. </p>