From the Maryland Senate Republicans:
This morning, Republican Senators challenged the basic assumptions of advocates proposing a bill to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Debate on amendments to the bill will continue when the Senate reconvenes at 5:00 p.m. today (Wednesday).
Senate Bill 167 Public Institutions of Higher Education-Tuition Rates-Exemptions is on second reader on the Senate floor. In an unusual move, the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee retracted the committee amendments that had been offered on the bill last Friday and introduced a new set of amendments that had been considered by the committee on Tuesday afternoon.
Minority Whip E.J. Pipkin outlined multiple ways in which the bill violates federal law. The federal code provides that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State for
any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
Citing from an Attorney General letter of advice, the floor leader responded that under federal law the bill is “not preempted, provided that the bill is amended to expressly reflect that it is intended to provide benefits for persons who are
not lawfully present in the United States” and eligibility is tied to a factor other than “legal residence,” such as attendance at a Maryland high school and filing a statement showing that Maryland income tax was withheld.
In response to claims by proponents of the bill that higher education was being denied to children in the state, Senator David Brinkley stated, “This is not about denial of education to students. The students have the ability to attend state colleges and universities – the question is who will pay? In a time of strapped state budgets, many states are considering repeal of existing laws granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants because of the enormous costs to state and local budgets.”
Republican Senators also challenged the claims that the proposed legislation was a job creation bill. Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs concluded, “It is ironic that we are spending the dollars of law-abiding taxpayers to fund the education and
training of illegal immigrants who are then ineligible for the jobs because they are not lawfully present in our State.”
The favorable committee report was adopted by a Senate vote of 28-18. The Senate will go back in session at 5:00 p.m. today to consider additional amendments to the bill.
Here is the reason why some American high school students cannot attend America colleges. We are educating legal foreign students. This is especially true in graduate schools. Graduate schools are filled with students from India and China. Every time a foreign student is accepted in a graduate school an American student is left out. Even if foreign students pay a high tuition, they do not pay the full cost of their education. American tax payers help subsidize foreign countries students’ education.
“Last year, nearly 130,000 Chinese students studied in the US – a record number, and a 30 percent increase from the year before.
That Chinese desire for a US education also helped drive an overall increase in foreign students studying here, resulting in a record high of 690,923, despite declines from many countries, according to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) annual Open Doors report, released Monday.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/1115/Record-number-of-Chinese-students-flock-to-US-colleges
“WASHINGTON: The number of students from India enrolled in US universities and colleges crossed 100,000 for the first time ever this year even as international enrollments in America registered the largest percentage increase since 1980, defying broad economic trends.”
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-11-18/us/28067180_1_international-students-enrollments-open-doors
If we are not going to ship illegal high school graduates back to where their parent came from, we should educate them. This is because they will become productive workers contributing to my social security and Medicare.
When Sen. Nancy Jacobs does not want to mention is a senior expectancy that we can no longer afford. Why can anyone who is over the age of 60 attend tuition free a community college. The purpose of the community colleges is to educate at the least cost students who are going to become productive workers. It is not the purpose to entertain and stimulate seniors who are not going to be able use this free education to contribute to society – too late!
More money is lost to educating seniors than is lost to educate few illegal high school graduates.
Sen. Jacobs please tell us how much money is lost giving free tuition to seniors! How many million!?
Professor Emeritus
However, those legal foreign students are paying foreign student rate to attend US colleges and universities. Or their governments are paying it.
The dems don’t care if in-state tuition for illegals violates fed law. They’ll just go to court and let the MD taxpayers pay for the law suit. How anyone can justify giving illegals in-state tuition when tax paying American citizens, including soldiers, may be denied a college slot is beyond belief. The lesson is give up your citizenship, sneak across the border and get all the benefits Americans citizens get(and pay for) for free.
How ’bout some follow up data Fogdog – what percentage of those LEGAL international students actually stay in the US and eventually pay US taxes, etc.?? The focus is the word “ILLEGAL!” Look it up – or doesn’t it matter if we are a land of laws? So which one do I think I’d like to break today…..
Legal students have to go back where they came from. Illegals stay here a find a job and pay social security and taxes. They become productive member of our society.
The problem I stated is legals are taking too many seats away from Americans. I do not we should permit 700,000 students from other countries attending our colleges. Every seat a student from another takes in college is one less for one of us.
Why is no one concerned that seniors can go to community college free? This is a loss of millions of dollars.
Illegals do not pay any taxes. They claim 12 dependents so little to no taxes ate taken from their paycheck. They do not file taxes at all. They use someone elses social security number to get the job, and when they don’t file a tax return, it is the true owner of the social security number that will be penalized for taxes not being paid, not the illegal. Many come here, work for 6-8 months, living in a rented house with 10 other illegals, save all the money, go back home to their real country, and live like a king the rest of the year. Then repeat the process every year.
Well you got part of that right – the “Legals” come here within our laws, get educated, then split. We get little or no bennies from that education given. Now – the “ILLEGALS” – they simply don’t belong here under their current circumstances!!! Have you been to an airport lately? Why do we spend billions taking our shoes off and showing our licenses? IT IS THE LAW AND THEY CHOOSE TO BREAK IT. That is the end of the argument – I don’t care if they become doctors some day – they HAVE TO ENTER THE US LEGALLY. And that is where our cowardly unlaw makers come into the pic – Feds drop the ball and the States snuggle up with riduculous waste of our tax dollars.
Instead of giving money to illegals we need to take care of our legal citizens. My granddaughter has good grades, tutored students after school, is valedictorian of her class this year and will not get one penny in scholarship money to University of MD College Park. She was accepted to their honor program, had her heart set on going there, but will not be able to attend because of tuition. She would have been just 17 when she started college in the fall and has accomplished a lot for her years. Hard to see such disappointment and discouragement in one so young. When are we going to wake up and realize we can’t give to everyone but ignore our own people.
Same thing happened to my daughter. But she got enough money from a top private university that it costs us less than sending her to the University of Maryland, to which I’ve contributed a lot of money over the past decades and from which my wife and I are alumni. But I’m not giving anymore.
Lori-I doubt that a Valedectorian can’t get scholarships and grants to attend a major university. How do you know that the reason she wasn’t accepted or received scholarships is because of illegals attending there. As far as I know right now illegals can’t attend a state school, unless I am completely off on that one because that’s the reason the legislature is proposing such change (which I don’t support). Unfortunately, not everyone can attend UM at college park but there are many other private and public colleges in the area. My son for one is about to graduate from UMBC honors college and has already lined up a job offer in this though economy.
Not saying she didn’t get scholarships due to illegals. I’m saying before we give to illegals we need to take care of legal citizens.
Firsthand knowledge… a boy who claims he is HISPANIC starting in elementary school. Hispanic last name but he and his Dad born here. College he gets SEVERAL minority scholarships. No he isn’t illegal but he certainly isn’t a minority. He got over $5,000 as a “minority” at College Park even more than that at Loyola. My son had better grades, MUCH higher SAT scores and is an engineering major and our family makes less money. We claim we need more scientists, more engineers, etc. but if they don’t meet some special criteria, they probably won’t get much. The whole process is a SCAM. Illegals can go to college wherever they get in, this law in Maryland is just giving them an “In State” tuition rate. There is no money so that means the taxpayers will be picking up even more of the tab.
You’re complaining that because your family failed to take advantage of a good education during the several prior generations when it was fine to openly oppressing minorities and thus you now have a lower salary, your kid should somehow still be entitled to get in front of a kid who might be one of the first in his family to ever even have a chance at an education?
I am not sure what you are saying but if you want to go back a few generations my grandparents were discriminated against too. They were Irish. Sorry I don’t approve of a public institution handing over $5,000 because someone says they are “Hispanic” and they were born here along with both of their parents. It had nothing to do with need and/or academic achievement. If a private college or scholarship wants to do that and they aren’t getting tax dollars then I guess they can put in any criteria they want.
you mean he got $$$ because he is considered part of a minority? I think having a spanish surname does not make you Hispanic. One could be from the Philipines and have a Spanish surname and he/she would be Asian, not hispanic. While to may assume that he got it because he was hispanic, it doesn’t mean that it was funded with tax $$$. Some private, foundations and single donors prefer to donate to specific groups. A quick search shows scholarships for many ethnic groups, such as italian, irish, german, french. I just read the other day about a new one for whites only. I guess now we are all even. No need to actually accomplish or deserve a hand up with your own smarts, just being born is the right group, country or race can give some extra benefits.
When a child starts school, a parent can “claim” them to be any ethnic group because there isn’t any true criteria. The government can’t come to you and ask if you are Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, etc. If you asked the person who does the data analysis from HCPS for No Child Left Behind how do they know if someone is really a “minority” the answer is they don’t. That in it of itself is a reason to eliminate all categories of reporting.
Unfortunately then it carries over to everything. College applications, scholarships, etc. I think that is part of the reason who so many people get so frustrated when they hear of another break for people who are here illegally. Lots of great, high achieving students (especially at public universities) can’t get scholarships or are ineligible for financial aid. Maryland wants to offer in-state tuition for people who are in the country illegally but options have become much more limited for the working middle class families.
The illegal immigrants should not get anything except a free ride home to the country they came from. Illegals are taking jobs away from american workers, and for the record they are paying little to no taxes on their income. They claim around 12 dependents on their W-2s so little to no takes are taken out, and they don’t file a tax return because they are using someone elses social security number for tax purposes, the person who’s social security number is being used has to deal with an audit from the IRS, so the illegal doesn’t care if they are breaking the law.
edgewood resident-maybe you and yours do just that, add dependents and get the EIC credit. How can illegals not file taxes and get tax credits? Have you been drinking? In fact, illegals do have taxes taken out and social secutiry wages are reported to ficticious numbers and the SSA and IRS know who is doing it. But there is another segment of the economy…business who see it that enforcement is lax and they get away with cheap labor. We seem to blame others for not locking our back door and for the costs illegals incurr, but do you ever think that your take out food costs less, furniture delivery, landscapping, and many other so called menial jobs are done by illegals and we don’t worry about it as long as what we purchase doesn’t cost us as much.
Frankly speaking, you really have no idea what you are talking about. What I have said is from first hand experience in the construction industry, not an opinion. I have seen the paystubs first hand. All you have to do is go to any construction company’s payroll and see the paystubs of their illegal workers. You will see the same thing all the time.
I agree with Edge Res, anyone who says illegals aren’t taking American jobs has never set foot on a construction site. Lots of American landscapers out there that want to work as well.
I believe that there are many immigrants in these jobs, but what I don’t understand is why are the immigrants to blame. Why not blame the companies who are taking advantage of cheap labor/and not having to pay SS/unemployment taxes for them? I don’t understand why in most immigration debates no one talks about the people who employ them. They’re coming here for jobs. Take away the jobs and they won’t come. It seems pretty simple.
I wish there was a way to prove to the anti-immigrant crowd that their numbers don’t add up besides letting them implement their lunacy. A policy of crucifixion of illegals on sight will not make the budgets balance. Being an a-hole doesn’t solve anything but I guess it’s hard to see that from where their heads are stuck.
Excuse me what what part of “illegal” do you not understand. If you do something illegal you go to jail. Illegal means wrong. My father was an immigrant to this country legally and when he came he had a sponsor who took responsibility for him. You come to this country legally, obey the laws and you have rights. If you come illegally you have no rights.
So you’re saying you’re in favor of crucifying illegal immigrants on sight not because it might save you a buck (it won’t in the end) but because it’s your duty to make sure that those without rights know their place? Nice. What church did you learn that at?
apparently illegals do have rights…in state tuition at the Free State, right to send the illegal kids to all the way to high school, right to receive emergency medical care and right to vote because MD only requires a driver’s license to vote. Clearly, we have a problem Houston and it starts and ends with us. Same thing the blaming Mexico and Colombia for our drug addiction and the Chinesse for our lack of putting our national wealth at the hands of others and also our lack of discipline for spending 1.4 times what we take in while giving more tax breaks to the ones that can most afford to pay.
It will just induce millions more to arrive in America, knowing there is all these entitlement programs. Why should taxpayers have to contribute to other countries failures. Join the TEA PARTY and fight this travesty of illegal immigration
TAXPAYERS TO THE WORLD
Again–those States that ignore public opinion and the billions of dollars extracted from public service and welfare programs to sustain illegal economic migrants and immigrants will initiate consequences of refugees arriving there from Arizona and other self-restriction States. If Oklahoma, Utah, Georgia Michigan, Florida legislators giving away to indulgent provisions, playing into the greedy hands of industry and other open border seeders. They too will be submerged by mass populations of illegal cheap labor, mainly from low income labor. These people are ready and willing to steal American jobs as they have been doing for three decades. Unsettled by new policing laws throughout the country, unknown numbers of foreigners will head in all directions looking for a better home.
States that pander to illegal immigrants such as California, Nevada will get their fair share of paperless people, as they spread across the Southwest. California has been soaked for a 24 billion dollar deficit, so how much money is your State taxpayers out-of-pocket subsidizing anybody who makes it this side of the fence or through airports. Illinois itself has to make-up 15 billion dollar deficit, with $4.6 billion attributed to taxpayers paying for foreign illegal settlement. No State is immune if the State lawmakers who decide to tamper down rigid laws. YOU–end up paying for the education, health care and accumulation of other entitlement programs. The schools are crammed with illegal alien children, same with hospitals and the US jails and prisons. Education has flopped as teachers have to spend more time, with students who cannot comprehend English.
WE CAN ONLY WIN THIS WAR, IF EVERY AMERICAN UNITES
Every State needs to be unswerving towards mandating E-Verify, 287 (G) and Secure Communities police programs. If you are here illegal and get caught, which you eventually will in some scenario you will be deported, with zero tolerance. Amnesty (blanket Amnesty or Comprehensive Reform or Dream Act) is out of the question with the majority of Americans and the growing membership of the Tea Party steadfast in their resolve. We have already had six hidden amnesties since Ronald Reagan’s unenforced 1986 immigration law and we pro-sovereignty groups are suspiciously watching for these irregularities. NumbersUSA does not disguise the facts from the Leftist editorial, but offers disquieting statistics and what is really being done to stem the ever increasing tide of illegal immigrants? The US Government does not always tell The People the full truth, so those interested in the corruption and details emanating from Congress and State Capitols on the illegal immigration issue should investigate the website of Judicial Watch. If you want to call your federal or State Representative directly, find the phone number in the blue pages of your phone directory.