<p>“The children of today’s illegal immigrants did not choose to come to this country illegally, momofsongbird, and knows English and love “their country” as much as their legal counterparts.”</p>
<p>Yeah and my kid didn’t choose to live in Texas either, yet I don’t see the state of California offering her instate tuition. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>Racinreaver, if you believe immigration laws are unfair, work to change them; that’s certainly your prerogative.</p>
<p>But it is not your prerogative (or anybody else’s) to say,"I believe this law (pick any law) is unfair, therefore I am justified in breaking it. That’s not how our system works. Not for the issue of illegal immigration or anything else. That course of action leads to anarchy.</p>
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<p>Ellis Island immigrants weren’t “legal” or “illegal.” The term had no meaning then. So don’t get on a high horse that your Ellis Island ancestors were legal immigrants.</p>
<ul>
<li>Granddaughter of someone who came in through Ellis Island in 1920, great-granddaughter of someone who came in through Port of Philadelphia in 1893</li>
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<p>(I’m a daughter of legal immigrants and a CA resident…)
In-state tuition and fees are largely unaffordable to many of the low-income students who are here illegally. They are not eligible for any Cal grants or Pell grants or scholarships from a public university. If they are paying tuition and fees, it is at the same rate as other California residents, and more than low-income legal residents or citizens.</p>
<p>No one specifically mentioned this, but it seems to be assumed that somehow California is paying for these students’ college degrees. The illegal resident student is allowed to apply for and attend a California public, if they – like anyone else-- can pay.</p>
<p>The bigger issue really is, what will these students do once they graduate? We have, as a society, invested in all of the children who live here. I do think that the dream act would allow these students to contribute back to society (higher earnings=higher taxes).</p>
<p>Complex issue though; I am not an open-borders proponent, either.</p>
<p>to all illegal immigrant apologists:
your arguments are all so 100 years ago. get real, there’s a managed system of legal immigration in place today and anyone who’s here outside of that system has not qualified for legal entry. how does it feel when someone jumps ahead of you in line at the ticket counter? illegal immigrants and their kids must go back home and apply like anyone else.</p>
<p>Sure, let’s just fund the education of illegals. Never mind that the State cannot afford federally passed healthcare for legal residents. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/13/MNDL1GA25U.DTL&type=health[/url]”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/13/MNDL1GA25U.DTL&type=health</a></p>
<p>“many people (myself included) know exactly how their legal immigrant ancestors came to this country, often through Ellis Island. We have the documents and legal records to prove it.”</p>
<p>How do you know that everything on those documents was true? My grandfather couldn’t get into the U.S. when he wanted to, so he went to Cuba for a couple of years and then came to the U.S. “from Cuba.” But whether he bent the rules or not, I’m only an American by virtue of his actions, not because of any merit on my part, so I don’t get much mileage out of the idea that I deserve to be here more than other people. I mean, it was just dumb luck.</p>
<p>It’s not that unusual for federal and state citizenship status to differ. It seems to me that California has the right to determine who’s a Californian for the purposes of in-state tuition. If you graduate from a California high school, you’re a Californian in the eyes of the state, even if you are not an American.</p>
<p>Inquisitive Mom…</p>
<p>I’ve seen the immigration docs of my grandparents…they came LEGALLY.</p>
<p>And, since you don’t live in Calif, it’s very easy for you to be so nonchalant about all of this.</p>
<p>How about all of those who live in OTHER states who favor this idea, send a nice fat check to California? Otherwise…(fill in the blank).</p>
<p>BTW…there is no such thing as “state citizenship” :rolleyes: In this country, you’re a citizen of the country…not a state.</p>
<p>There’s a good reason they call California la-la land. Ridiculous. Illegal is illegal. There is no legal but oops we’re not going to pay attention. California’s answer is the equivalent of “but officer I was holding it for a friend.”</p>
<p>California is doing its very best to become completely totally bankrupt…It’s becoming a state where everyone with any money/business will leave. Then, what will all the others do???</p>
<p>Indeed. CA is well on its way to becoming a Third World breadbasket. K-12 public schools are now above 50% Latino, with a significant percentage of those being illegal, and with the great majority of them coming from actually or functionally illiterate families. The way the public schools in CA run, they are far from academies in targeting of funds collected. Easily 50% of the public school funding gets diverted to social services for any family in some kind of need, which in fact describes most of the Hispanic majority. Nutritional services, legal services, and more – including funded interpreters – are standard in even “bare-bones” public schools in which I have taught, and recently. The fascinating part to me is that I so doubt that some of the people on this thread who may live in other States would tolerate for an instant their own State 's educational system being so heavily invested in social services at the expense of academics. You can argue all you want about how essential these are to learning, and they are, but money does not grow on trees, and a redistribution of educational funds for other services has been increasingly bankrupting both the educational system in CA, and the state as a whole. The State’s largest expenditure is “education.” Figure it out.</p>
<p>All of you California bashers have your work cut out for you. Eight other states have the same/similar law allowing young people who have completed 2-3 years of high school and initiated US citizenship to enroll in the state university system and pay in-state tuition: Texas, New York, Kansas, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean by “California bashers.” Do you mean bashers of the political system and economic decision making in what is a state loaded with potential and used to be the envy of the entire nation, for decades, before the Perfect Storm of an enabling legislature, an exceptionally powerful teachers’ union, and out-of-control immigration occurred? </p>
<p>On the other point, I am aware that CA is not alone in these tuition privileges which clearly prefer the fruit of illegal entry to that of legal residency. Because it happens does not make it morally acceptable or economically feasible within compromised state, federal, and private industry budgets – to many of us.</p>
<p>It cracks me up to hear anyone but Native Americans decrying illegal immigration in this country. Just sayin.</p>
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<p>I thought that’s often how cases which are brought before the supreme court are started.</p>
<p>(I suppose I should give my heritage. Mom’s family has been in the country long enough they were fighting Indians in Virginia, and my dad’s parents were poor Jews from Poland and Russia and passed through Ellis Island.)</p>
<p>Onto the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>I am a legal immigrant. The process is long and expensive, but I would never have thought about the option of coming illegally. I became a citizen and 12 years later (all tax paying years) I had two children who are U.S. citizens. </p>
<p>Like previous posters, I am not in favor of our education dollars being spent on services for people who opted to break our laws then believe it is our responsibility to provide them with bilingual services in school. Nor do I believe those that break the law should be considered legal citizens for the purposes of college tuition (in any state). </p>
<p>Many on this board are struggling to juggle the cost of tuition, student housing, books etc. etc. We want the playing field to be fair - we may gripe about the struggle but the reality is that when we are all struggling equally we have a community. When others are provided what we are not, we are mad that the playing field has become so unfair…with our tax dollars.</p>
<p>how many 3rd world mexican nationals (with their kids) do we need sneaking into this country anyway? unfortunately we don’t have much choice as the immigration service is not in control over who is here, ergo who will become a citizen once the next amnesty is offered. recent story: a friend of mine owns a successful agricultural business in central california. they decided that instead of invading everybody’s privacy by asking all for proof of citizenship, they would do a random sampling of their unskilled, hourly - minimum wage plus benefits - workers (there are a lot of them). this is a very well-managed and well-intentioned company, by the way. of the workers sampled, 4 out of 5 had fraudulent social security numbers. the answer is to share our mexicans with non-border states - as will happen anyway as our effective unemployment rate is approaching 20%. we have enough burrito chefs already; you folks in the midwest may as well pay to share their culture, too.</p>
<p>And in a tangentially related story, Jessica Colotl, the Kennesaw State non resident student arrested last spring was convicted of driving without a license and still faced deportation after her graduation [Jury</a> finds Kennesaw State student Colotl guilty on one of two charges | ajc.com](<a href=“http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/jury-finds-kennesaw-state-737348.html]Jury”>http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/jury-finds-kennesaw-state-737348.html)</p>
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Say what?
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