Posted on 10/01/2011 10:43:51 PM PDT by American Dream 246
Matt Lewis says he’s improving on this issue. I guess, but that’s mainly because after you’ve tried to win over voters by calling them heartless, there’s really nowhere to go but up. A scene from New Hampshire this morning:
“We have, for decades, had a federal government that has absolutely failed in its constitutional duty to defend our border,” Perry said.
“I’m a governor. I don’t have the pleasure of standing on the stage and criticizing. I have to deal with these issues,” he later added.
Perry continued, “In 2001, we had this choice: Are we going to kick these children over to the curb and say you cannot have access to college? Because the fact of the matter is there’s no way they could pay the out-of-state tuition. And are we going to have them on the government dole over here because they’re not educated? Or are we going to have them in our institutions of higher learning, paying in state tuition, pursuing citizenship?”…
David Connors, the man who asked Perry the in-state tuition question, said he was satisfied with the governor’s answer.
Really? There are no jobs for illegals anywhere in Texas to earn tuition money? I was under the impression that there are quite a lot of jobs available to them, especially since Perry opposes e-Verify. This is the same sleight of hand he tried to use in the debate answer that got him in trouble, equating illegals’ opportunity to go to school in Texas with some sort of moral imperative among taxpayers to subsidize their education. (His wife, campaigning for him in Iowa, framed the choice as between tuition subsidies or welfare.) Somehow, the impoverished U.S. citizen from Mississippi is expected to pay his own way in Austin but the illegal who’s lived in Texas for three years gets a stipend from the locals. And not just in terms of lower tuition rates; apparently they qualify for financial aid too. It must be awfully confusing for Perry, as a “Texas Gaullist” and vocal champion of state sovereignty, to find that prioritizing state residency over national citizenship doesn’t play well with grassroots conservatives outside of Texas itself, but he’d better find clarity soon.
Here’s Romney’s new ad bludgeoning Perry with praise he once received from former Mexican President Vicente Fox. After you watch, read this amusing scolding (which notes some of Mitt’s own immigration heresies) from former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, who seems genuinely surprised that Romney would pander so shamelessly on a divisive issue simply to destroy an opponent. That was the old, soulless Romney. The new, soulful Romney should be above that sort of thing. Right?
Perry is a RINO idiot, and Wrongney is even further left.
Looks like I’ll be staying home.
You still need top vote for senate etc. Don’t stay home just leave the top of the ticket blank. I am writing in Sarah on my ballot.
So....Okay,..... I'll support in-state tuition for illegals on the same day that the children of illegals are barred from government K-12 schools. And...If a parent illegally attempts to enroll their child in K-12, they are arrested and convicted as a felon and serve hard time for stealing **thousands** of dollars from the taxpayer.
I'll support in-state tuition for illegals on the same day that illegals are barred from every social service in this state. No more food stamps, or Section-8 housing vouchers, or free trips to the emergency room.
I'll support in-state tuition for illegals on the same day that when an invalid social security number is phoned in, the police show up 3 minutes later.
Is it a deal?
I’m no Perry fan but are you people reading what he said here? Nothing about paying for illegal’s education. Just that the rate at which the illegal must pay will be less than the exorbitant out of state fees.
Is there something about the word “ILLEGAL” I’m missing?
Bookmarking to find article on Perry giving illegals in-state tuition
The response of Freepers on this topic really saddens me. If people are so angry that they can’t look at facts and take a forest rather than tree position we are done. Perry is proving he is an honest man. He made a politically suicidal statement and isn’t backing down from it. Why would he do that, why not just spin immediately like Obomination? He beleives what he’s saying. OK step back. What is he saying. Texas went to the Supreme court attempting to not educate illegal children in grade school and high school. They lost. There was a state wide vote and the Texans overwhelmingly voted to provide illegal people who had gone to high school in Texas and who had lived in Texas for 3 years in state tuition. Children from any other state in the union can get in state tuition in Texas after being resident for on year. The illegal has to be on a path to be obtaining legal status. So these families have been in the state at least 3 years, in many cases it has been many more years than that. Their parents have paid state sales tax, property tax or rented from folks paying property tax. In many case the have managed to get on the books so they can pay wage tax also. It is a lousy system because they shouldn’t be here illegally but they are productive citizens and while the country works its way to a solution we need to be pragmatic and fair. When anger talks and says let them get jobs and pay their way the person saying that is being an ass. The overwhelming majority of them have jobs and they are paying instate tuition which gives funding to the college system. The system takes 97% of applicants at its largest campus so they are not crowding out other Texans.If you think that deporting someone to a place where they have not lived since they were a toddler is the right answer you are a fool. These are the best of the crop, these kids who have stayed within the system and are ambitious and want to go to school. Don’t you think we should deport the criminals and the people on welfare first? These kids are an asset if we let them be. I am all for instruction in English only, no La Rasa, no phony liberal degrees in cultural relativism but that is not what is being discussed. The responses to this topic have been a hate fest and I am ashamed to have it on The Free Republic.
If you’re ashamed of FR, I suggest you leave. I think you’d better check your facts. I don’t believe there was a state wide vote that was overwhelmingly approved, I believe the legislature approved it and Perry signed it.
How we run immigration is CRUEL! **YOU** are the person who is being CRUEL! This is what I have learned over the years:
— Bigamy. Many of the men have two families. One is in the U.S. and the other is completely abandoned in Latin America. I personally have watched as men and women try to arrange divorces over international borders.
-—If it can be complicated here in the U.S., it is even more expensive and difficult across international borders. As a result, the women left behind in the home country are in the sad state of not being able to legally remarry. ( There are few men left in the villages to marry anyway!)
— Whole towns and villages decimated of their men between the ages of 15 and 50.
— The women, children, and elderly in these villages beg their men to come home. They are **defenseless** against predation of many kinds.
— The children who are brought here as young children speak Spanish with difficulty, and culturally have no connection with their home country but are condemned to a shadow life here.
— Because so many men are in the U.S., many women have no hope of ever marrying.
— The brightest, most aggressive, and creative men and women are in this nation. These are the very people who would be facing down corruption if they were in their home country. A corrupt Mexico **hurts** the U.S. too! A less corrupt Mexico would benefit us.
— Most of the families we work with have some siblings that are U.S. citizens and some that are illegal. That makes for some very interesting sibling rivalries.
— None of the illegal children have any contact or relationship with their extended families in their home country. In the meantime, their U.S. siblings freely cross the boarder to spend whole summers with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
How do I know that the above is true?
My husband and I are fluent in Spanish. I would translate, on occasion for the illegal community in Maryland when we lived there for 18 years. Now, in this state, our church leaders have asked us to join the Spanish speaking congregation and we have been members there for 3 years. We run the Cub Scout program and help out with missionary work when needed. I also give free piano/keyboard lessons to the kids in the congregation.
When I heard Perry say this, I thought it was my lying ears.
Well...CRUEL people ( for all the reasons stated in the previous post) will say ..”It's only fair that we extend citizenship now. We paid all that money for their education. They are ambitious and upright young adults. They are assets to the country...etc.”
Then then the CRUEL people will say, “It isn't **FAIR**! Some kids are hardworking and good contributors to the community but aren't ‘college material’. It isn't FAIR that some get citizenship but others don't.”
Then the CRUEL people will say, “Sure they are not going to post-high school training, but they have a job and are high school graduates. Why should their sibling get citizenship but they don't.”
Then the CRUEL people will say, “ They've been in this country 3 , 5, 10 years. We can't send them back!”
It is CRUEL for all the reasons stated in my previous post, to encourage parents to bring illegal children into the U.S. In state tuition does **exactly** that!
I post this, as a person who loves the Spanish speaking community in our county, and who works closely with them, visits their homes weekly, has them to her own home several times a week, and prays with them every Sunday and other times throughout the week.
What you're puking up here is Obamas lame line of shared sacrifice.
Thats nothing but bull crap.
What you're calling punishment isn't punishment at all. Lets remove Jose for a moment.
Lets make this between you and me.
Lets say you come from a functional family. Mom and dad work. Pay bills. Do some wise financial planning. Do a good job raising you, and then put you through school.
My parents were divorced, my mom did the best she could, and did a good job, but she could not afford to put me through school.
Now lets say you and I have equal grades, but your parents can afford to put you through school and my mom can't. Am I being punished???
NOOOOOO!!!
Lifes hard. Sometimes its harder for some than others. Thats really what life is.
Maybe your parents did wise financial planning. That takes sacrifice. That takes time to plan. That takes money that could be spent for leisure or pleasure, and instead invested. My dad did none of those things. My mom did the best to her ability. So where your parents sacrificed early on, it paid off later, in the form of your education. My dad failed to sacrifice at all, so when it came time for me to go to school no such luck.
You said "So if a child of an illegal parent graduates from a high school with a 4.0 gradepoint, shouldn’t that achievement be rewarded with the same opportunity the rest of the students who have similar achievement?"
Life OWES nobody. Maybe in kindergarten everybody gets equal milk and cookies. But this is the real world. This is time to man up and be an adult. LIFE doesn't present equal opportunities. And the opportunities it does offer aren't always at convenient times for us. Success isn't about getting EQUAL opportunities. Its about taking advantage of the opportunities presented. Success is also about making your own opportunities when none or few are presented.
What you want is magic world. Where everybody sings Kumbaya and is happy and skittles fall from the sky. You want everybody equally "lucky" with equal outcomes. Well, what some call Luck, is what others call hard work.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Luck is where preperation meet hard work.
There is one other key factor here. Its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Personal responsibility says "this is my life, not my parents." "I AM responsible for me." "I AM responsible for my happiness." "I AM responsible for my success" (or lack thereof).
Personal responsibility is accepting where you are in life and moving on from there.
These are no longer children, they are 17-18 year old adults. Its time they start acting like it. If they want success, they must go out and earn it.
Punishment suggests taking away something that should be their's. Their parents never worked to be part of the system, so they never provided the opportunities others had. If these young adults are "punished" its by the lack of planning on the parents part. The parents failed the kids.
I prefer to stay and fight.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Texas and New Mexico are the only states granting in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal aliens. On the other hand, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama state policies prevent illegal aliens from attending public universities. This week, the California Supreme Court ruled illegal immigrants can attend college at in-state tuition rates.
You are absolutely right HB 1403 was passed overwhelming by the Texas Legislature not by popular vote. There has been at least one revision Bill 1528. The students at Texas A & M have tried to repeal the law but the movement has been squelched because the legislature is the proper venue. I’m not saying that Perry is my candidate. I am saying that this point of expressed view does not deserve to be considered a litmus test because it is a nuanced issue. I have said that I would be very happy to live somewhere where Sarah Palin could run and win and I still hold out some hope but I will sit on my hands before voting for Romney. I don’t want us to savage Perry so badly that he is not viable in case we need him.
N-i-c-e summation of Senor Perrynista. He hogties Texans by appealing to their Big D chauvinism---and reinforces the ego appeal by saying "we can secede whenever we want to." That frees Perry to conduct all the funny business he wants. On the national stage, Texas talk does not resonate.....voters want presiidential talk. But Perry does not have it to give.
You posted a most excellent post.
Sums it all up.
As a Texas native, and long time resident, with a son attending the University of Texas at Austin, I have a few thoughts about this issue.
First, academic admission to the top tier colleges in Texas is a challenge. For some of the schools it is arguably as difficult as achieving admission to one of the Ivy League schools.
The admissions requirements alone, tend to reduce the supposed attractiveness of in state tuition for children who are not documented.
Secondly, Texas in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition compare favorably to other schools in the nation. It is certainly cheaper for a student from an Ivy League state to attend college at a top school in Texas than it is for a Texas student to attend an Ivy League college. Data is available here: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/
So, Texas is not treating students from other states any differently, and in fact more favorably, than those states treat Texas students.
As for undocumented students. Here are the requirements: a student is allowed to pay in-state tuition if he has attended high school in Texas for 36 consecutive months, has graduated from a Texas high school, and, in the case of an undocumented student, signs an affidavit saying he will apply for legal status as soon as he is legally able to do so.
So what does that mean in practice?
Two examples from my son’s friends might be illustrative.
The first was a young man whose mother was born from American citizen parents living in Canada. She lived in Canada, where she met a Swede. They married and bore a son while living in Canada. The parents divorced, and the mother and son moved to Texas, where she obtained US citizenship.
She applied for citizenship for her son when she was allowed to do so. The application was tied up in the US bureaucracy for years.
The son graduated high school and was accepted for admission to a Texas college, where he was eligible for in-state tuition. He was an “affidavit” student.
Subsequently, his application for US citizenship was denied. He left Texas and moved to Canada, where he obtained Canadian citizenship. He now is attending college in Canada at a lower cost than the in-state tuition in Texas. So much for the supposed lure of Texas in-state tuition. After graduation, he will apply for work visa in the US, as he wants to return to his family home.
The second young man is the son of a family from Malaysia.
His father was transferred to Texas by a major oil company under a US work permit. They lived in Texas for a number of years, and the son attended public school here.
During the last year of high school, the father was transferred back to Malaysia.
The son elected to complete his high school education here with his classmates.
He met the academic requirements and was accepted by a college in Texas. He applied for a student visa.
He met the residency requirements. While waiting on the student visa, he was an “affidavit student” at a Texas college paying in-state tuition. Subsequently, his student visa was granted and he is now working on a master’s degree. He also will apply for a work visa when that becomes an option.
Interestingly, while I know of the history of these two classmates of my son, I do not know of a single example that those of you from outside Texas must envision when you think of “in-state tuition for illegals.”
My son attended a very large high school in the Houston area, so one would think that among his friends, there should have been an example. There just is not, although many of his friends are from other countries.
So based on our family’s experience, I think that many of the “affidavit” students must have circumstances similar to my son’s friends. That being the case, the current law seems to treat them and the state of Texas fairly.
“Why isn’t this a states right issue? And why can’t folks accept that TX made its choice, and just leave it at that?”
Because the office he now seeks is President of the United States not Governor of Texas.
bttt
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.