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Most Utahns feel a state law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state college tuition should be repealed, according to a new Salt Lake Tribune poll.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?''
I don't have any opinion on Rhode Island.
Yeah, right I'm sure the junior congressman from Utah is going to go into congress and offer up his fast pass idea. Then everyone will jump on it and instantly pass it. What planet does that happen on? Not this one.
Jacobs is simply stating that some illegal workers have property here, families, good history, tax payments. If and only IF they return to their own country and reapply for reentry would their request be expedited. It make sense to me. AND I get to vote. :-)
Until those threads start showing up, then we can expect you to be one of Chafee's defender's I'm sure, since he's someone that "we know". For now you'll stick with Utah's primary.
IOW, you support amnesty, just in a different form.
That is one motivation to send a message loud and clear. Kind of like a "shot heard 'round the world."
I KNOW Cannon stinks. I'm hopeful that Jacobs is better. By all appearances he IS better. I've met both candidates face to face (I was a caucus delegate.) I've spent hours with them, personally.
Tell me what you know? Have you met with Jacobs? It appears you might have a hind-pocket view of Cannon. If not, what is your dog in this race?
I can't stand Chafee.
Do Bay and Tom have a target over Chafee's face, too? If not, why?
If Laffey wins, the Democrat will get elected, most likely, given the liberal tendencies of that part of the country.
Why? Because I said they need to return to their country and reapply for reentry? That not amnesty in any book. Are you trying to put words in my mouth? Why?
On the other side, which I have researched in depth, they came in the very early 1700's through Pennsylvania then to Maryland and down through North and South Carolina and Tennessee, eventually to Texas. Mark keeps telling me he's going to send me copies of all his research so I can see all the details and add to my other records...
It really fascinates me learning these things and in some cases gives some important data -- like my husbands side where we knew his mother, her sisters and his grandmother all died of stomach cancer, we learned that his great grandmother on that side also died of stomach cancer.
I'm sure they will when September rolls around but by the looks of things Chafee won't need any help getting the sack. :)
What a crock! You Jacob supporters are going to have a hard time defending this pig of an immigration plan.
And there it is, a preview of what we'll be hearing from the Cannon supporters when September hits.
You won't hear anything from me. For the third time, I could care less about Rhode Island.
Then why do you care so much about Utah, that's not in Texas is it?
or Chris Shays for that matter.
It's seems that Bay buchanan and her eunuch tom tancredo only seem to go after good conservatives.
Also watch tommy boy now criticize good conservative James Sensenbrenner for his ringing endorsment of Chris Cannon.
Have you answered one of my questions yet? What dog do you have in the fight? What business is it of yours? Why do you think your opinion matters?
Lonsberry has come out on Jacobs side. What make you a better spokesman for Utah than him? Buchannan and Tancredo support Jacobs. But I must side with YOU?
Your opinion of amnesty is stange. You'd like to go with Cannon's idea and grant amnesty outright. I want to go with Jacobs, send them all home, make them reapply, then determine if they may come back.
And you accuse me of wanting to grant amnesty...interesting TSTL.
Sounds to me like you are in favor of amnesty. But maybe I'm too stupid to "get" it.
That is very true, they feel there is a lost tribe of Mormons in Mexico and they have made over two million converts, over the recent past, below the border. The head of the church is openly courting illegal immigrants and welcomed Vincente Fox last month with open arms.
Dane, pay attention. They're not going after Shays because he's come out against amnesty and the Senate bill.
One more time so it sinks in, they're only targeting the supporters of amnesties, not the opponents. It's called democracy in case you were unaware.
Nah it called pure bay buchanan/tom tancredo spite.
Anyway I'll go with James Sensenbrenner's endorsement anyday over Medusa like bay buchanan's endorsement.
Ah, Dane, You left out the best part of the article.
Jacob said Congress needs fresh ideas, saying Cannon was in Washington while the national debt ballooned from $5.5 trillion to $9 trillion.
On immigration, he said, "In America, we abide by the law. When we don't abide by the law, we have anarchy." He added, "We're already in Iraq protecting other people, and we haven't secured our own borders."
He said Cannon supports the 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants and isn't strong enough about sending them home before they can be considered for legal status.
"I'm of the belief everybody has to go back," Jacob said. "These people have brought diseases, drugs, all kinds of things to our country."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.