Post by richardkelsey on Aug 12, 2006 13:43:03 GMT -5
Again -- I don't think this was published.
Dear Editor
New Jersey is powerless, under the law, to permit illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition. An op-ed in your paper, suggesting otherwise, was factually incorrect, and again deliberately misleading. Indeed, the opinion piece again chose to blur the line between the lawful immigrants everyone welcomes, and the illegal immigrants who are neither welcomed, nor to be rewarded.
First, it is a federal felony to induce an illegal alien to enter or stay in the United States. A tuition subsidy easily qualifies as such an inducement. Second, the immigration reforms of 1996, including the conference committee report on the final bill signed by President Clinton, make clear that illegal immigrants are not permitted to receive in-state tuition. Third, one would be hard-pressed to understand why it is that a citizen of a foreign country can attend New Jersey State Schools on a tax subsidy, while a lawful U.S. Citizen, born and raised in Bucks County PA, would have to pay out-of-state tuition in a New Jersey School.
Citizenship is not earned through adverse possession. And, merely paying taxes within a state does not make one a citizen eligible for its benefits. Illegal aliens whose parents may have paid sales tax are no more entitled to a state subsidized college education than an American paying the European VAT tax would be entitled to such an education in France. The argument is nonsense. Illegal aliens, according to one study, cost the state of California alone, 10 Billion dollars per-year. New jersey, doubtlessly, is not far behind.
It is curious that a State like New Jersey, facing a property tax crisis, would even consider extending taxpayer subsidies to illegal aliens. New Jersey struggles, as it is, with the cost of the social redistribution programs it already has for its own citizens. There is no valid political, policy, or legal justification to extend taxpayer subsidies to illegal aliens to attend New Jersey Colleges. To do so, arguably, would be a felony.
Dear Editor
New Jersey is powerless, under the law, to permit illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition. An op-ed in your paper, suggesting otherwise, was factually incorrect, and again deliberately misleading. Indeed, the opinion piece again chose to blur the line between the lawful immigrants everyone welcomes, and the illegal immigrants who are neither welcomed, nor to be rewarded.
First, it is a federal felony to induce an illegal alien to enter or stay in the United States. A tuition subsidy easily qualifies as such an inducement. Second, the immigration reforms of 1996, including the conference committee report on the final bill signed by President Clinton, make clear that illegal immigrants are not permitted to receive in-state tuition. Third, one would be hard-pressed to understand why it is that a citizen of a foreign country can attend New Jersey State Schools on a tax subsidy, while a lawful U.S. Citizen, born and raised in Bucks County PA, would have to pay out-of-state tuition in a New Jersey School.
Citizenship is not earned through adverse possession. And, merely paying taxes within a state does not make one a citizen eligible for its benefits. Illegal aliens whose parents may have paid sales tax are no more entitled to a state subsidized college education than an American paying the European VAT tax would be entitled to such an education in France. The argument is nonsense. Illegal aliens, according to one study, cost the state of California alone, 10 Billion dollars per-year. New jersey, doubtlessly, is not far behind.
It is curious that a State like New Jersey, facing a property tax crisis, would even consider extending taxpayer subsidies to illegal aliens. New Jersey struggles, as it is, with the cost of the social redistribution programs it already has for its own citizens. There is no valid political, policy, or legal justification to extend taxpayer subsidies to illegal aliens to attend New Jersey Colleges. To do so, arguably, would be a felony.