Thread: Georgia editorial roundup

Georgia editorial roundup
6/1/2010, 10:34 a.m. CDT
The Associated Press

(AP) — Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:

May 27

Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal on the illegal immigrants in state colleges and universities:

We've all seen the signs erected by highway construction sites that say, "Your tax dollars at work." Well, Gov. Sonny Perdue might as well start putting up similar signs at the entrances to Georgia's colleges and universities that say, "Your tax dollars at work: Educating illegals."

Do those in this country illegally deserve admission to Georgia's public colleges and universities? Yes, according to Gov. Sonny Perdue, at least in the highly publicized case of Jessica Colotl, the Kennesaw State University student revealed to be an illegal alien after she was stopped by campus police for a minor driving infraction. After her arrest Colotl gave false and/or misleading statements to police and the Cobb sheriff and wound up in an immigration detention facility in Alabama before the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency gave her a one-year waiver during which she can stay in the country legally to finish her schooling.

Perdue said Tuesday she should be allowed to stay and finish her final year at KSU, as long as she pays the out-of-state tuition rate. ...

Regents spokesman John Millsaps noted that current federal and state laws do not preclude illegals from applying to college. True enough. But public, tax-supported colleges should not be accepting such students.

Perdue said the state's colleges should focus on educating students, not worrying about their legality. ...

The cost of verifying applicants' citizenship status via the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system would be but 50 cents per person and would only apply to those who list themselves as legal non-citizens on the application form. If that's too much for the colleges to swallow, they could make it a tack-on to the application fee. Legal non-citizens could be asked to complete an affidavit swearing to their lawful status and eligibility for the public benefit in question (the college education), just as they are supposed to do now in order to obtain a business license, for example. False swearing on such affidavits is a felony punishable by deportation in the case of non-citizens.

Forced by events to pick a side, Perdue chose the side of those in this country illegally. And in so doing, he sided against those Georgians who have loyally paid taxes to support those colleges and universities in the hopes that their children might someday obtain one of those highly prized admission slots. In other words, Perdue got it exactly backward.

www.nola.com

Jean, if only we could get the media to make the obvious connection between illegal aliens and unemployed Americans, the Open Borders, Come And Get It Crowd would be heading for the border