If a child was brought here by parents and have illegal status and have completed high school within the state, I feel that in state tuition should only come with proof that the student has started the process to become a legal citizen.
Every semester that continues to offer assistance should also require proof that the student is continuing through that process to become a legal citizen.
is there a process for DACA kids to become legal citizens? Or for others here illegally? I didn’t think there was a path, which is what a lot of the debate has been about.
Not yet.
Same process as for every other non-citizen seeking to immigrate. They have to return to their home country and apply from there. Or, they can apply for asylum, as the folks from Central America are doing right now.
Other than returning to their home country or applying for asylum, that is correct.
For those interested in reading up on how this works in Texas - this is very detailed so you can see the number of students, types of schools, all costs and types of funding available. It is a very controversial topic here for many reasons as many factors come into play. I find it is important to see the numbers on any issue and Texas does track these things.
http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/9054.PDF?CFID=75314517&CFTOKEN=13839274
The bill in question has this:
Even Texas requires an Affidavit. Just a signed document ‘Intent to Become a Permanent Resident’.
And as it is pointed out:
State law does not delegate authority to the institutions or any other entity to monitor whether students are complying with the content or provisions of the sworn statement.
http://stoptexassetasides.org/sample-affidavit-of-intent-to-become-a-permanent-resident
So … signing an affidavit doesn’t mean much without any ability to follow through or accountability.
It is a complicated issue but at the end of the day you are rewarding people who broke the law and jumped in front of the thousands of people waiting to come here legally. As a society why would we support this?
Many people on both sides of the aisle feel like there is a difference between adults who do this and kids who are brought by their parents and had no ability to make the decision on their own.
Also, some who have unauthorized or DACA status did not enter in an unauthorized manner. For example, the OP of http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2111289-colleges-on-daca.html and http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2131364-reject-train-going-full-speed.html had to get DACA status because a previous immigration lawyer helping his family was a scammer who did not do the necessary visa renewal paperwork, resulting in loss of previously authorized status. Unfortunately for him, he lives in and will graduate high school in Illinois, which does not have useful-enough provision for DACA students and has poor in-state FA anyway.
True they may have overstayed a visa for example but the result is the same… illegal residence in the US. No one prevents anyone from leaving the US when their visa expires but no one keeps track either. They use the weaknesses in the immigration system to their benefit. That being said I do support each state making its own determination since their respective tax payers pay to support it and can vote as they see fit.
Until a state can provide a free college education to every citizen student, those who came here illegally should not get aid. Although the child did not intend to break the law, their parents are benefiting from illegally coming into this country. They don’t have to pay any of the tuition for their child. They don’t have to co-sign loans. They don’t have to try and help the kid pay back the debt. There are so many citizen-students burdened by high college debt. Those students should be helped before non-citizens are.
The recent bill that passed in NY has the stipulation that the student must have completed highschool in the state in order to get state funds and in state tuition. It is possible for someone to move in state and take the GED and thus become eligible. But this is what the elected officials in NY passed.
That an OOS Student, whether a US citizen or a legal international student has to pay OOS surcharge and is not entitled to NY state money comes from the assumption that such a student did not reside in NY, and student and parents did not have to pay NYstate taxes. The presumption is that a student who gets his highschool degree in state, is most likely to have supported the state in the past several years. Clearly, that is not always the case with exceptions that can happen.
If the parents are paying taxes via their employment, they aren’t getting something for nothing.
If the parents are unemployed or not earning enough to pay taxes, getting the kids an education can help break the cycle of poverty (both of these go for all kids, not just DACA).
I see no downside. These are the sorts of things I want my taxpayer dollars to be used for. I wish my own state (PA) would do more to make college affordable for students.
I’ve never seen a reason to punish kids for choices their parents make. I’ve never seen a reason to punish kids for their lot in the birth lottery. Of course, I see no need to punish adults either, but that’s a different thread. None of us got to choose where we were placed on this planet or what others do to make a place livable or not. There are plenty of places I’d be leaving if I were there - esp if I had kids. I wouldn’t care if it were legal or not if I thought I could give my kids a better life - or just plain save their lives.
@creekland - they are breaking our laws to be in the country, take away all the benefits of breaking our laws and they will come here the legal way.
We already spent $10,000/year to educate each illegal foreigner, when does it end?
You can’t have both open borders and endless free stuff. Choose one.
@tpike12 If folks could come here legally, there’d be far less illegal immigration. Have you ever looked at the requirements to come here legally? There is no path for most folks.
I’m fine with open borders. I’m also fine with spending tax $$ on free education to all who prove academically capable. Education is a wise investment. Chasing down illegal immigrants is not. We had far less illegal immigrants coming to stay when the borders were more open. Many would come, do the jobs residents don’t care to do, then head home to be with their families. Now they need to come and stay because it’s much more difficult to cross borders. But I digress…
I’m fine with more free education for more students across the board (trade schools too). Students just need to get the stats/GPA from high school and keep it in college to show they can handle it. Our state and country would reap far more benefits than keeping capable students poor due to lack of education.
If the kids came here legally, they wouldn’t get free college LOL. The legal kids face all sorts of issues. even PRs don’t get state funded uni $ benefits in all states. Fafsa means very little, as we see on CC over and over.
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@creekland - so you’re okay allowing unlimited foreigners to come into the country then educating them using American tax payer dollars?
Are you giving them citizenship too so they can work and put their free education to use?
As it now stands in NY, anyone who wants NY in state tuition just needs to get a high school diploma (can also be through passing GED). That makes the student eligible for for state financial aid ( such as TAP, Excelsior). TAP funds can be used for private schools too.
We already educate all children K-12 whether they are here legally and/or whether their parents pay taxes. Our schools tend to be funded through real estate taxes. The question now becomes for each state whether the benefits we give to our state residents in breaks in admissions, costs, state financial aid funds for state colleges should be extended to those in our country illegally. Federal funds are not accessible to these kids. They cannot have a FAFSA processed
For the most part, these children went to school in the state just like our kids, and graduated, looking towards college as the next step. These are the top achievers in school, the ones who did not drop out, the ones who want to continue their education and have the qualifications to do so. They have to apply to the colleges and get accepted just as their classmates do. Try already are disadvantaged in that they cannot get federal funds for college. Each state has the privilege and duty to decide whether these students should get same access to the state college system as other in staters do. And that is what each state is doing.
I noticed years ago that many of the smaller state and local colleges , like community colleges did not enforce their state residency rules anyways. Au Pars always got in state rates at these schools. As long as you had a local address to fill into the system, you were good. The colleges I saw did not bother screening anyone for state residency rules for tuition rates. Unlike the larger universities such as the flagship schools that often scrutinized where your parents live and how long. Some of such schools have quotas for OOSers and rules that make it difficult to get in state rates once you start out as an OOS student.
@tpike12 Of course I’d love a path to citizenship that anyone can use! Our country was made great by immigrants from all sorts of countries throughout the years. I work with several at school and have for going on 20 years now. There are some terrific minds that shouldn’t be going to waste.
If some folks who come here end up being bad apples, toss them - just like we go after our own residents who are bad apples. Don’t punish a whole group over something as trivial as where they were born. If we’re anti-immigrant, perhaps we should all return to the countries of our ancestors and leave this land to the Native Americans.
Where it relates to college, I think the cost should be less expensive (possibly even free) for everyone who can get in to public schools (including trades). It can still be limited to one’s state of residence or similar. It need not include all the students living in other countries who want to come here just to go to college or someone from PA wanting to go to CA. If truly low cost or free, there could be a work trade off required (must work in the state for X years afterward). It could even be state loans that are forgiven after that work requirement is met - or paid off if the student ends up choosing to work elsewhere.
Education truly is a good investment for the state to make. It changes lives in a good way.