Thread: Gheen: Hunt touts bill to give in-state tuition to illegals

Lexinton Dispatch

LINK to Article

By WILLIAM L. HOLMES
Associated Press Writer

With North Carolina's Hispanic population booming - and Hispanic children dropping out of school at alarming rates - lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday that would extend resident tuition rates at public universities to the children of illegal immigrants.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt returned to the General Assembly to show his support for the legislation, which is sponsored in the House by two Republicans and two Democrats. The measure would give in-state tuition to students who attended schools in North Carolina for at least four consecutive years before graduation. Young people in the country would have to apply for legal immigration status to receive the resident rate.

"It is morally right and it is economically necessary for our state," Hunt said. "We need these students. They have worked hard. They have excelled in high school. We need them to get all the education they can get."

The bill appears to enjoy wide support; by Tuesday, 31 legislators had signed on as co-sponsors, drawing an expression of surprise from the president of a Raleigh-based group that lobbies for tighter restrictions on immigration.

"It's amazing that 35 politicians are so out of touch with their constituents," said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration.

Illegal immigrants admitted to University of North Carolina schools would take up some of the limited number of spots for in-state residents, Gheen said.

"I hate to see a bill that will eventually replace thousands of Americans in college with illegal immigrants at taxpayer expense," Gheen said.

Supporters of the bill say the alternative is a growing number of young Hispanics without a college education even in the face of growing demand for bilingual workers. Supporters expect 480 students to 1,345 students to apply for admission to University of North Carolina schools this year if the bill passes.

"It makes economic sense to give these students ... an opportunity to succeed," said Andrea Bazan-Manson, executive director of the Raleigh-based Hispanic advocacy group El Pueblo.

Illegal immigrants are allowed to apply to any college they wish to attend, but they must pay out-of-state tuition if they are accepted to a public university in North Carolina, regardless of where they live. The state's flagship university, UNC-Chapel Hill, charges $3,200 a year for in-state tuition, compared to $16,300 for nonresident students.

One result is that many Hispanics quit school, knowing they can't afford to pay for college. About 58 percent of foreign-born Hispanics in North Carolina age 16 to 19 are dropouts, either in their home country or in the United States, according to an analysis of 2000 Census figures by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Rep. Jeff Barnhart, R-Cabarrus, one of the bill's sponsors, said the state wastes the abilities of talented students by restricting access to higher education.

"These children come to live here because their parents brought them," Barnhart said. "How far do we punish? These students are committed to their education and I'm 100 percent committed to helping them."

Jaime Zea, a 16-year-old student at Enloe High School in Raleigh, said many of his fellow Hispanic students have given up on education.

"It's a living hell for them," said Zea, the son of an accountant and a homemaker who moved her legally from Colombia four years ago.

Zea, who plans to attend college to study broadcast journalism and already produces a short news broadcast for his high school, said he wants others to have the same chance he'll have.

"It's not about me. It's about us," he said.

Nine states - none in the South - have approved similar legislation, said bill sponsor Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland. Similar measures are pending in 14 other states, including Florida, Georgia and Maryland. Arkansas lawmakers are expected to consider such a bill within the next few weeks, Bazan-Manson said.

"In the end, this bill is about economic development and it's about educational opportunity, but it's also about the soul of who we are," Glazier said. "Ultimately, it's about children."

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On the Net:

El Pueblo:

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC:

Cry me a river.

Traitors live in NC

Kick them out of office and they can find jobs as garbagemen. ( apologies to our under-esteemed, hard working, sanitation workers)

The crying goes on that is a result of illegal Aliens own fault of illegally invading the U.S. and N.C. It is "nerve wrackng and a living hell" for illegal Aliens (including their illegal children, which by the way ruin the quality of American children education by overcrowding and bilingual ed. in middle,high schools) because it is of their own criminal actions which have made them illegal.

The overall principal.....learn the lesson.....don't enter the U.S. illegally. No---Americans should not make it OK and comfortable for illegal Aliens so they can do more of the same invading. Nope... these kids should pile up in the restaurant jobs they should not have either.

To say that just because illegal Aliens are here now, should not be that a law is made for future illegal invasion.

To say that, 1st illegal Aliens violate U.S. Laws and Borders and so then just because their illegal bodies exist here there is nothing else to do but to give in and reward them ....is the whole idea of the blackmail agenda of illegal Alien occupation.

Just because the Parents are illegal and the child was unknowingly innocent does not justify the action of COST and ABUSE of Americans because life is unfair and in many life instances and all Parent - child relationships, the child has to bear a cost of an unwise decision by a Parent.

We should bring to note to Mr. Barnhart, that it is in fact written in Federal Law that if in-state tuition is given to illegal Aliens then in-state tuition must be given to ALL out-of state Students which will be a non-worthwhile big cost to Universities. This exact situation is cuurently occurring in Kansas where out-of-state Students have filed lawsuit due to the illegal Alien tuition garbage.

EXACTLY. For these elected officials, government and school boards, along with the socialist academicians to grovel before these unprincipled, scofflaw, felons who have proved that they have no integrity nor character to attack the intrinsic problems within their own F-ing countries. is so anti-American, anti-rule of law and anti-Constitution, they should be hanged by their thumbs.

If the good folks in NC allow this outrage to continue they will have earned their rewards and placed the rest of America at risk. All while our young men, and sadly women, are giving their lives for the freedom and liberty we enjoy in this great nation. These who would dissolve our borders are in effect saying that America does not need to be a sovereign nation anymore. Say hello to the NWO and the UN blue-capped military. If we sit on our hands and do nothing about CAFTA, FTAA, LOST, REAL ID and the so-called nuclear option, and fail to step up and demand something be done about our borders, we can kiss our nation goodbye. The tyranny of the majority WILL HAPPEN via voter fraud thanks to the appearance of legitimacy via NC drivers license. We can watch the invaders vote themselves more taxpayer funded programs and benefits which, if received in greenbacks, will simply be funneled back to V. Fox and his corrupt machine.

Un-be-lieve-able. And they cry and whine about how the American taxpayer, that is you and me buddy, should shoulder the financial burden for EVERY poor, undereducated, unemployed, disease ridden 3rd world peasant, mainly from MEXICO. There are BILLIONS of people, less fortunate than the 25 million Mexicans living ILLEGALLY in OUR COUNTRY. So do they want us to give away our birthright, assets, and blood to them too?

Ross Perot was right. We are now hearing that "great sucking sound" which he warned would be as a result of these treaties, "entanglements" as Jefferson called them.

Say hello to a Western Hemisphere type of E.U. with regional governance under the UN or some group of NGOs. None of whom will be accountable to the American voter, so kiss our freedom and liberty GOODBYE.

Until we take control of the electoral college, nothing will happen. We can vote for the Republicrat or the Demoblican. Both of whom recently were members of the same secret Yale society, weren't they?

The good folks of NC have done and continue to do everything we can to stop this nonsense. Short of gang beating certain lawmakers for their sheer stupidy.

And might I add, if you think NC good folks are all so dumb, I assume you are here because of the USMC and cannot be invited to leave?

Some of those good folks of NC run ALIPAC. We're not all blonde. And we're not all dumb.

We accept your apology as you cannot possibly know every person in North Carolina and therefore we know you wouldn't stereotype us.

Just as the good folks in Jacksonville try not to stereotype a Marine against any they might have met before. Even if they thought that one might not be the brightest bulb in the box.

By the way, Once a Marine, always a Marine. Wh---oooo----ah!!!
God Bless the late SSGT George Fullwood - gone but never forgotten.

TenHUT there Private good12me. I am down and giving you 20 for not being clear. Having lived in the beautiful Tarheel State a few years ago, I know there are some good people there, civilians included. Of course my rant was targetted to the whiney, hand wringers, of whom, you do not seem to be one.

I DO like the thought of a gang beating though.......

Roger on the local ALIPAC folks. Of course all who post here should appreciate the effort and hard work that Wild Bill has put in and is about to.

HOORAH.

To those that fought, freedom is something the protected will never know.
-anon.