Immigration 101 might change minds
By Tina Griego

Posted: 03/10/2009 12:30:00 AM MDT
Updated: 03/10/2009 01:07:49 AM MDT


Here's what my column will not become: All immigration. All the time.

The world's a big place. We have a lot of ground to cover.

That said, one should strike while the iron is hot. I'm still reading my e-mail on in-state tuition for students who are here illegally. Many of you support the idea. Many of you don't. Some of you are still holding out for mass deportation. There is a phrase for that hope: Pipe dream.

Some of you believe the current recession will do the work of deportation. People will leave, you say, because work is becoming scarce. That may be true for those who have something to go back to, by which I do not mean opportunity, but succor, a family or community life.

But many have nothing. It always pays to remember when talking of illegal immigration that misery is relative. Relative as in the Mexican minimum wage is about four bucks a day.

A common question: Why should my cousin's granddaughter in Texas have to pay out-of-state tuition in Colorado when some Mexican kid — it's always a Mexican kid — living here doesn't?

I'll leave it to the universities to make the pitch for out-of-state tuition. I'll make the residency argument. As Alex Cranberg put it in Saturday's column, "You can't live here without paying taxes." The families live here, spend here, pay taxes here. They're not legal residents, but they are residents. Our welfare is bound to theirs.

But let me step away from the pulpit and over to the chalkboard. What is revealed most in my e-mail is a lack of understanding of immigration law. That's fixable. I believe if most sane people really understood how screwed up our immigration laws were, they wouldn't be jumping all over a bunch of kids who want an affordable college education. They'd be knocking down the doors of Congress.

This, by far, is the most common question I received: "Why haven't they just applied for citizenship?"

The question presumes that presented with the choice of becoming a legal resident or remaining an illegal immigrant, these students have chosen the latter.

No such choice exists.

Young people who are here illegally cannot saunter into their local immigration office and say, "All right, I'm tired of being an illegal immigrant. Let's do this citizenship thing."

There is no current "path to citizenship" for these young people. There is no path to legal residency, which precedes citizenship. The law says if you entered the country illegally — even if you were still in diapers when you did it — then you must return to your home country to be processed for legal re-entry.

Sounds easy. Here's one problem: To get back in you must have an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident act as your sponsor. That knocks out a whole bunch of kids immediately.

Here's another: If you are 18 and have lived in this country illegally for more than one year, the oh-no-you-don't penalty kicks in. The moment you cross back into your home country, a 10-year bar on legal re-entry triggers. Exceptions are few. If your parents traveled with you back and forth across the border, there are no exceptions.

"They cannot erase the mistake their parents made," immigration lawyer Laura Lichter says. "They might have to stay out for 10 years, and then the question is, 'On what basis will they be allowed back in?' Because they feel bad now? No. You have to have a petition from a qualifying relative. Without that, we're done. No matter how good a student they are, whether the military wants them, whether they are married to an American citizen. They cannot become legal residents."

It is for this reason that state Sen. Chris Romer's amendment to his in-state tuition bill requiring students to sign an affidavit declaring intent to pursue citizenship is a well-meaning but empty gesture.

I know this information may only strengthen the resolve of those who believe in-state tuition offers false hope to students here illegally. Why bother with college if they can't get legal employment afterward, right?

Because education under any circumstances benefits both individual and society.

Because on the federal horizon is the DREAM Act, a bill to fix this larger issue. It'd be in the state's best interest to be ready for it with students in the pipeline. The DREAM Act is expected to be introduced in the House in about two weeks. Generally speaking, it would grant conditional legal residency to these students as long as they've stayed out of trouble, graduated from high school and been accepted by a college or the military.

We're moving on two legislative tracks, state and federal. They complement each other. If you mean it when you say you want these kids to "do things the right way," these are the bills to support and now is the time.

Tina Griego writes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach her at tgriego@denverpost.com.

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