Posted on 06/22/2006 1:29:47 PM PDT by goalinestan
Most Utahns feel a state law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition should be repealed, according to a new Salt Lake Tribune poll.
Seventy-one percent of the 625 registered voters who were interviewed by telephone for the statewide poll this week said Utah should "repeal the current state law that offers the discounted resident college tuition rate to the children of undocumented immigrants."
Ruth Bick, a 63-year-old Ogden resident, said Utahns should not have to pay taxes to subsidize a college education for undocumented students. The state's middle class already is burdened enough with big tax bills, she said.
"Taxpayers should not have to pay for illegal children to go to school here," said Bick, a poll respondent who calls herself a political independent. "I just don't know what the answer is."
Layne Barnes, a West Jordan Republican who also participated in the poll, said children of undocumented immigrants already get free assistance and a free public school education, so "they should not be rewarded for breaking the law."
"I have no sympathy for them," he said of undocumented students.
But Shane Andrews, a stay-at-home dad and poll respondent, said in-state tuition is about wanting to "make them [undocumented Utahns] better people.''
''If they can't better themselves, their only alternative is to seek more public assistance," said the 32-year-old Republican.
The 2002 Utah law grants in-state college tuition rates to undocumented students who attended a state high school for at least three years and graduated. Last year, 169 students qualified for the tuition rates under the law, state numbers show. Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, has sponsored a bill for the past three years to repeal the law, but he has had no success. Still, he has said he will try again.
Philip Bernal, Salt Lake County Hispanic Democratic Caucus chairman, said the poll results on the tuition question "are not positive for education or Utah's future." Bernal, who didn't take the poll, said it's all in the wording of the question because the poll could have asked: Should Utah residents, who have attended at least three years at a state high school and graduated, be allowed to pay in-state college tuition?
There's a "misperception" statewide that the law allows undocumented students, many of whom have spent most of their education in Utah schools and cannot apply for federal financial aid, to pay less tuition, Bernal said.
"They're residents of Utah like everyone else," said Bernal, who had worked in higher education for 34 years. "It's not a benefit - it's a right they have."
In a January 2006 Tribune poll, nearly 60 percent of respondents said Utah should "repeal the state law that offers the discounted resident college tuition rate to the children of undocumented immigrants."
The statewide telephone poll by the Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. was conducted Monday and Tuesday and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Minorities make up 16 percent - Latinos 11 percent - of the state's population and 12 percent of Utahns do not speak English at home, according to the U.S. census. The poll did not ask about respondents' ethnicity.
Many Utahns also said they support building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (56 percent); oppose a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the United States illegally (54 percent); and feel the state government should not have a public information Web site in Spanish (46 percent).
Bick said a pathway to citizenship is out of the question. A wall would give the United States "control of the border." And she doesn't want millions of state tax dollars spent on translating services into different languages.
''I hate that I have to 'Press 1' to hear English,'' Bick said. ''If they're here, they should know English.'' Barnes, a Utah Minuteman Project supporter, agreed. He went to the border in Fall 2005 with a group of Minutemen to learn more about the area and definitely supports a wall.
"I would help build it," Barnes said. He hears a lot on the news about Latinos committing crimes and blames them for Utah's unsafe streets. Barnes said he is frustrated that the employees at the fast-food burger joint in his neighborhood only speak Spanish.
"They're illegal aliens," he said. "I'm tired of being a victim."
Bernal said the wall being built on the border is not welcoming.
''It's the United States saying . . . we don't want to be neighbors,'' he said. ''If we decide later we don't like people who speak French, are we going to put a wall on [the U.S.-Canada] border?''
Since there are so many fatal accidents as you said there were, you shouldn't have any trouble finding two or three.
What worries me is the mindset, even here on FR that we need to keep the bums in office. John Jacobs is MORE conservative than Cannon. In fact Jacobs used to be a poster here on FR (since 2001) until he was banned over a heated discussion about his real self.
Hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
How can something that hasn't happened yet have an effect on our country?
I suppose you're not going to find those links now, to all those fatal accidents caused by Mexican trucks, are you?
Worries me, too...
Is that why he is proposing an amnesty with his "FastPass"?
Hey, cousin. My ancestors are Mayflower too. John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, how about yours?
How is Jacob more conservative than Cannon? What are his positions on issues other than immigration? His website is nothing but fluff.
And many of the same "leaders" who are doing this handover share a heritage as you do, their ancestors came on the Mayflower and settled America and fought in the Revolution. As I understand it Chafee from Rhode Island is one of them and I hope he gets burned in his coming election, the sellout deserves it.
The only place I have ever seen the use of the word "FastPass" is in Cannon PR articles. Can you provide a link where Jacobs supports this other that what Cannon has alleged? I like to see it, I'm sure we would all like to know Jacobs stand.
I found this statement on the internet, the words are not mine, but the sentiment is.
" Only in the emotional arena of the illegal immigration debate could President Bush and Cannon be labeled liberals. Cannon's voting record repeatedly ranks among the most conservative in Congress, but because he is to the left of some cantankerous groups on immigration, he has been a lightning rod since Bush announced his bid for immigration reform in 2004.
Bush proposed, and Cannon has supported, a guest-worker program that would allow some illegal aliens working in the United States to remain for a period of time, six to 12 years in various proposals, and for some of those to possibly earn the right to apply for permanent residence."
Good grief. Our current leaders are not "handing our country over".
Have you read the Senate bill? If it's not handing the country over to Mexico then it's certainly giving them a big chunk of it.
You didn't catch the debate? There was a thread here about it.
Have you heard of the famous Maldef speech where Cannon is quoted as saying that, "in Utah we love illegals." He admitted openly in the same speech to allowing his staff members to work closely with Mecha members to draft immigration legislation. As my Congressional Representative, Cannon is supposed to represent the people of Utah, not radical ethnic identity groups. Are you from Utah? I am, so therefore I will be voting (as well as being a poll judge) next Tuesday for John Jacobs. There are many, many more in District 3 who will.
It doesn't really matter if John Jacobs turns out to be no better than Cannon, we in Utah, can show those who favor amnesty that they are vulnerable to candidates who run against them on that issue. This alone will help move those on the fence on this issue into the solid ground.
However, Jacob didn't outline exactly who would qualify for a fast-pass program.
He said immigrants who can prove they've been here for 10 or 20 years should qualify for a fast-pass program but was short on details. It was also unclear whether he would extend the fast-pass program to immigrants whose families would be split up after anyone who was in the country illegally was forced to leave.
"I don't have all the answers whether fast pass will work. I don't know yet, but it looks like a better idea than keeping everyone here," Jacob said.
IOW, Jacob is just throwing something out there to see if it will stick.
One thing is certain, he is closer to Pence and Cannon than he is to Tancredo.
Poll shows Republican primary a dead heat in U.S. Senate race
Republicans favor Laffey by a margin of nearly 2-1, and he would win the party's nomination if only they cast ballots in the primary, the poll by the college's Bureau of Government Research and Service predicted. Even if a large number of unaffiliated voters, who favor Chafee, cast ballots in the Republican primary, the results would be too close to call.
If Cannon mentioned FastPass to me, I WOULD think he was talking about Disneyland. Mr. Jacobs might have also wondered what the heck Cannon was talking about, and asked for additional time to look into it.
Has Jacobs ever come out in support of FastPass, has he even mentioned it? Where did the term originate? Is there such a thing (except in Disneyland of course). I told you it was PR spin. Your statement looks as if I was right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1652311/posts
Finally. A Jacob supporter who admits his real motivation.
You will trade a ten year rep with a 97 ACU rating with seniority for a noob who can't even describe his own immigration plan. All because you want to "send a message."
You better get ready. Johnny boy shot himself in the foot with his goofy "FastPass" discussion. He doesn't look any different from Cannon, and, when that's the case, the voters usually go with the guy they know.
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