<p>Whatever the residency requirements are should be followed. I agree with curmudge that colleges should not be in the immigration enforcement business. The comparison to the Utah mother who moved to Georgia, although it stirs the emotions, is not an accurate one. If that mother had satisfied the residency requirements, then she, too, would be eligible for in-state tuition. Do the written requirements specify that the individual must be a “legal” resident? My recollection from one of the many previous threads on this subject was that they do not.</p>
<p>This Coloradan & former Californian agrees with you, ldmom06. Immigrant labor – much of it illegal – is the economic backbone of the West. Anyone who disagrees with this is in denial.</p>
<p>In 5 more years it will be a moot point in Texas. By 2012 it is predicted that Hispanics will have a 51% majority in the state. They will be deciding most of these issues for us. Time to learn Spanish.</p>
<p>Current Californian here. Immigrant labor is the backbone of the entire US:). Personally I believe that the US became great due to its wildly liberal immigration policies and the US will fall because of restrictive policies. Of course, I’m mostly concerned about the H1-B visas, but I would extend the liberality to all.</p>
<p>Katliamom, I guess then that you’ve never been to Redmond, WA., i.e. the campus of Microsoft. Now that’s the economic backbone of the west. And, you might be surprised to know, you will find thousands of immigrants in Redmond. Highly skilled, legal immigrants.</p>
<p>What annoys many people in the immigration debate is the fact that the illegal segment of the population will probably be getting a preference over the would be immigrants who are now compelled to wait in line. Admittedly, both sides of the issue are guilty of ignoring indisputable facts; Immigration of limited-skills workers siginificantly depresses U.S. wages (compare construction and meat-packing plant wages from 1990 and 2007. And…we don’t have a workable procedure to deport 12 million people. Let me know if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>Getting in-state tuition fraudulently is not as big a problem among aliens who are in the country illegally as it is a problem among the far more numerous American citizens who play the game.</p>
<p>This is a problem. Period. It’s not confined to illegal aliens.</p>
<p>My mother was a principal and school district administrator at one of the only public school districts just outside of Manhattan to offer a pre-K program. I was always amazed at the policing that she had to do to save taxpayer money from parents who would try to get their kids into the program by claiming they lived in that district. Rather, I should say that I was amazed at the lengths people went to to bilk the taxpayers that were funding the program for their community’s children. And these people who were attempting the fraud are not the poor and the downtrodden. There was no relationship to economic position. If there were illegal aliens who tried it, I can’t recall. There probably were. But the point is that anyone of any position or citizenship status tries to glom onto free or reduced fares for education that’s been funded by other jurisdictions. Treating this as a problem among illegal aliens is like spitting on a forest fire.</p>
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If colleges routinely accept this as proof of residency then I guess the problem’s solved for the legal students regardless of the legal status of the parents.</p>
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Is it ‘immigrant labor’ or ‘illegal immigrant labor’? While I don’t agree that illegal immigrant labor is the backbone of this country (and I’m not in denial), even if it were, would it justify them disregarding our laws? Should we just open all borders and have no immigration control at all? I think the best solution is immigration reform where our laws will allow for guest workers to the symbiotic benefit of the USA and the counties the workers come from. The laws can spell out the benefits to the workers and obligations of employers and government as well as the obligations of the worker. I don’t think there’s much question that our immigration/guest worker policies need to be revised but that doesn’t mean the existing ones should be ignored in the meantime. </p>
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This is a problem at the top public HS in this area as well. The school must go to lengths to ensure the students are really within district because some otherwise law-abiding people will lie and cheat to try to get their kids into the school in that expensive to live in area.</p>
<p>My daughter has met a number of kids who were brought to the US illegally by their parents as young children. Most of them have younger siblings who were born here and so are citizens. But they aren’t. And they have never lived anywhere else. It’s a horrible limbo to put your child in, but imho the kids shouldn’t be the ones to suffer. Immigration is a huge problem, I don’t have the answer, but I don’t begrudge these kids who have basically lived their whole lives here in-state tuition. (and I live in a border state)</p>
<p>@ my3girls: The worst situation I’ve ever encountered is a child who was adopted illegally by some U.S. ex-pats working in Central America. The child was Mexican by birth. Pretty much delivered straight from the delivery table to them. When the parents returned to the U.S. the child was explained to all as having been born while the couple was abroad. One relative knew better and he fell out with the couple and, to spite them, he reported the child as an illegal alien. The child was in high school and, until the INS came calling, never even knew there had been an adoption. And, get this, deportation proceedings commenced – but the child did not speak a word of Spanish! It all had a very happy ending, but…whoa…that made for some dicey moments!</p>
<p>I read that article with interest, Atlmom. While in spirit I think it isn’t the kid’s fault he was brought here illegally at the age of 4, the Ga law is the Ga law. Our idiot legislators also enacted an equally stupid law requiring women to undergo a sonogram before having an abortion. Stupid, unnecessary piece of legislation, but if it is the law, one must follow it. If we must follow that law, we gotta follow the illegal alien out-of-state tuition law.</p>
<p>Now, many states offer out-of-state tuition waivers for military personnel. Maybe we should have all the illegal alien students serve our country first, and then they can have their in-state tuition. Just a thought…</p>
<p>ucsd dad, so what do you propose we do with the illegal immigrants currently here? Do we deport all 12 million of them?</p>
<p>“ucsd dad, so what do you propose we do with the illegal immigrants currently here? Do we deport all 12 million of them?”</p>
<p>Not to pick a fight, but why do we really have to do anything right now? They chose to come here knowing what the situation was and did it anyway.</p>
<p>I understand estimates are upwards of 20 million illegal immigrants. </p>
<p>And I always hear that boohoo ‘cost of social services and tax avoidance’ bit as an economic argument against illegals… But the truth is these people are spending money in American stores, paying American sales tax, paying for utilities, renting and indirectly paying property taxes…AND buying homes (through personal lending coops and normal banking institutions), etc… </p>
<p>Now wouldn’t it be quite an economic experiment if 20 million customers just suddenly ‘went away’??</p>
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It’s a start. </p>
<p>And let’s start allowing more temporary workers in but legally.</p>
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Yes, they’re spending some small amounts, but they’re also sending huge amounts back to their home countries. This is why countries like Mexico have no desire to stem the tide.</p>
<p>Renting and indirectly paying property taxes?? It’s true for some but not all. There are many illegal camps around where these people aren’t paying a dime. There are also many cases where five families are living in a single family dwelling. In this case they’re not paying the property taxes at all since the scale is completely off.</p>
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Check out the school systems and the hospital emergency rooms around here and you’d see that enormous sums are spent on illegals - sums paid for by legal taxpayers.</p>
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<p>Californian here. In our state, demographics show that the majority of residents in the state will be hispanic by the year 2050 (or whatever the real year is). Are we really doing ourselves any favors by not educating the smart, hard-working kids who could become the doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, nurses, etc. we will need in the future?</p>
<p>All of this hoopla about illegal immigrants reminds me of George Wallace standing on the steps of the University of Alabama, barring 2 African-American students from entering. No–I’m not calling those who have strong anti-illegal immigrant views racist. But George’s actions had the feel of a last ditch stand before the inevitable changes came. </p>
<p>Hispanics are here and they are here to stay. The children of illegal immigrants born in states are US citizens. Demographics tell us that they will be an important group, politically and economically, in the next 50 years. US companies have already realized that. It’s time for the public to catch up.</p>
<p>My posts were focused on illegals - not Hispanics. Hispanics make up the majority of illegals but that’s mostly due to geography. I have no issue with any Hispanics who are here legally and welcome them.</p>
<p>For all of you who argue against the enforcement of our immigration laws, what’s your answer - open borders?</p>
<p>@ ellemenope: Your comments made me recall a speech that touched on some points – with some extremely obvious distinctions with respect to illegal aliens – but, for whatever it’s worth (or, perhaps, apropos of nothing), here are the closing words of the Ware Lecture given by Julian Bond to the 2003 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association:</p>
<p>*When I started working four decades ago, there were five workers paying into the national retirement system for every retiree.</p>
<p>I can’t possibly know who my five were, but their names could easily have been Carl, Ralph, Bob, Steve and Bill.</p>
<p>When I retire, there will only be three workers paying into the retirement system - their names could easily be Tamika, Maria, and Jose.</p>
<p>We need to provide them with the best schools, the best health care, the best jobs, and the strongest protections against discrimination we possibly can.*</p>
<p>Source: <a href=“http://archive.uua.org/ga/ga03/4051bond.html[/url]”>http://archive.uua.org/ga/ga03/4051bond.html</a></p>
<p>“When I retire, there will only be three workers paying into the retirement system - their names could easily be Tamika, Maria, and Jose.”</p>
<p>Yea, because Carl, Ralph, Bob, Steve and Bill all lost their higher-wage jobs and are on welfare instead (or out on the street homeless.)</p>