Thread: Bill: financial aid to illegal immigrant students

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February 12, 2009 in City
Bill aids immigrant students
It seeks broader eligibility for state grants

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Tags: washington legislature
OLYMPIA – Emotions ran high Wednesday as state lawmakers discussed allowing illegal immigrant students – many of them brought to this country as young children – to qualify for millions of dollars in state college grants.

“As I look into their eyes and their hope for the future, I say let’s not draw a line around them,â€

"I think it's a good investment to keep these talented kids, so they have a hopeful future," Quall said. At a news conference before the hearing, Quall was emotional, teary-eyed as he described hostile reactions from people around the state to his proposal.

Does this gas-bag understand that illegal invaders are not legally allowed to work in this country!!!!We all know what comes after graduation...the outcry for amnesty so they can seek work in this country! After that, they get to sponsor their illegal invader parents and the rest of their extended family!

This is nothing more than back door amnesty attempt!!!! This is how these people do it. Today it's in-state tuition and or financial aid , tomorrow it's amnesty! Can we expect Quall to have "tears in his eyes" when these same invaders are DEMADING amnesty in four years in order to put their degrees to work!!

UpDATE: This is a follow-up story from the University of Washington's student newspaper, The Daily.....one of the illegal alien students who testified at the Washington State House Committee on Higher Education is currently a student at UW and he was brazen enough to flout the law in front of Washington lawmakers and demand that public taxpayers in Washington give him and all other foreign nationals residing illegally in Washington, financial aid grants to continue his studies.

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Undocumented students testify in Olympia to be eligible for aid
By Kaitlin Strohschein
February 13, 2009
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Jackie Martinez fled civil war in El Salvador when she was 10 years old and came to America. During high school, she worked full time and took enough honors classes to graduate with an associate degree. Martinez went on to obtain a master’s degree in public administration, and is now a doctoral student in education at the UW.


Photo by Cliff Despeaux.

This UW student is one of several undocumented Washington state students pushing for legislation in Olympia to allow illegal immigrants to obtain financial aid.

It wasn’t until two years ago that she officially obtained legal residency, and now Martinez must wait three more years before she can apply for citizenship.

Undocumented students — like Martinez was through most of her college career — have been eligible for in-state tuition since the passage of House Bill 1079 in 2003, granted they meet certain criteria. However, unlike other in-state students, they are not eligible to receive state need grants.

That is why on Wednesday, Martinez, along with five undocumented college students from the state, testified in Olympia in favor of HB 1706.

Under this bill, undocumented students would be eligible for the state’s main financial aid program.

Need grants are awarded to undergraduates whose income is 70 percent less than the median if they are classified as “resident students,â€

"the if there's a need let's take care of it" philosophy is one that the nations where these illegals originate from should take heed and also the same philosophy that has all but bankrupted the illegal immigrant sanctuary states like California, Texas, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois. When Rep. Quall compares Doctors without Borders to illegal immigrant students demanding pubic financial GRANTS (hand-outs)....it is complete nonsense....there is no comparison....he's apparently missed a few classes in simple logic and reasoning.

Proposed student-aid bill would extend eligibility to illegal immigrants

Under a proposal in the Legislature, low-income students who are here illegally — already eligible for in-state college tuition rates — could now qualify for state financial aid as well.

By Lornet Turnbull and Chantal Anderson

Seattle Times staff reporters
Comments (126)
Manuel Garcia, 17

Under a proposal in the Legislature, low-income students who are here illegally — already eligible for in-state college-tuition rates — could also qualify for state financial aid.

Washington's largest student-aid program, the State Need Grant, awarded $195 million in assistance to 71,000 low-income students this school year. And at a time when increasing numbers of Washingtonians are seeking student aid in a battered economy, House Bill 1706 and Senate Bill 5959 would extend eligibility in the grant program to illegal-immigrant students.

Students like Manuel Garcia, a Mount Vernon High School junior with a 3.9 GPA, whose mother brought him to the U.S. when he was a baby.

Now, 17, he'd like to attend Washington State University when he graduates next year but keeps hearing from aid counselors that he doesn't qualify for assistance and can't work on campus.

"They say ... if you have the money you can come," Garcia said. "I think it's obvious I don't have $20,000 to go to college."

The financial-aid measures come five years after the Legislature passed HB 1079, which allowed illegal immigrants who have lived in the state for three years and graduated from a Washington high school to qualify for in-state tuition.

Rep. Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, sponsor of the House bill, said, "Education should have no borders."

It's unfair to educate children through high school and then bar some of the neediest and most deserving from getting help to continue to on to college, he said.

"When you say to a well-qualified high-school graduate that there's no assistance but you can go to college, that to me, is a huge barrier," Quall said.

But those concerned about the impact of illegal immigration in this country say it's also not fair to ask families struggling to educate their own children to subsidize the education of those whose parents broke the law in bringing them here.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, asked: "What about that kid you'll never hear about, who also worked hard, who has dreams and aspirations ... a kid who may not be able to go to college because the money is going to someone here illegally?

"I guess the Legislature and governor can't find enough ways to spend all the surplus money they have."

The Need Grant provides up to $6,000 a year in financial assistance to eligible low-income state students to attend public universities. To qualify for those maximum amounts, the income for a family of four cannot exceed $37,500.

To be eligible for any kind of aid, that same family's income can't exceed $52,500.

The bills would mostly benefit Latinos since they represent the largest percentage of the estimated 260,000 undocumented immigrants in Washington state.

They are the state's fastest-growing population and are projected by 2030 to become the first minority group to top 1 million residents.

Over the last two decades, the Latino K-12 student population grew at a rate of 372 percent, while the white student population grew by 6 percent.

Most of these kids grew up in this state and, like Mount Vernon High's Garcia, consider themselves American. "I love my country; this is my country," he said.

But they don't qualify for most private scholarships, which often require a valid Social Security number. Often, those who don't go on to college end up in low-skilled jobs.

Even those who do finish college have few options because their illegal status puts most professional jobs out of reach.

FAIR's Mehlman said while their circumstances are unfortunate, it's their parents who bear ultimate responsibility.

"We invested in their K-12 and now we are being told to come up with countless thousands more to put them through college ... and then they still can't go to work," he said.

Since the Legislature passed the in-state tuition bill in 2003, an estimated 1,700 illegal-immigrant students have used it.

Ricardo Sanchez, chairman of the Latino/a Educational Achievement Project, which is backing the bill, said, "We think that 1,700 could double if these students had access to financial aid."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/p ... on12m.html

POSTED: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009
Unhappy with Quall immigrants stance
LETTER - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

I read with dismay that state Rep. Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, is sponsoring legislation to provide free college education to illegal immigrants. His justification? That if a family of illegals manages to avoid capture and deportation long enough "it wouldn't be right to deny aid to qualified illegal immigrant students."

A noble sentiment, but in an economy where people struggle just to make ends meet, where the state government is slashing jobs and budgets, where more and more native Washingtonians can't afford a college education, wouldn't that money be better spent providing an education to qualified Americans?

Mark Butler

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/letters ... 95737.html

Added to home Page
http://www.alipac.us/article3980.html

Isn't it strange how the states receiving the most money are states that have some of the worst illegal immigration?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090214/..._who_gets_what

Over the last two decades, the Latino K-12 student population grew at a rate of 372 percent, while the white student population grew by 6 percent.

Well it won't be long before latino's are making the laws in Wash. state...one more amnesty will take care of that!

Originally Posted by onetrickydude

Isn't it strange how the states receiving the most money are states that have some of the worst illegal immigration?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090214/..._who_gets_what

Not strange at all in my opinion. If these states were to go under it would be clearly evident that their Sanctuary Policies were highly contributive to the fact. Can't have that now can we?