http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/20 ... umn-01.asp

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 ]

My Opinion
Calif. immigration law has repercussions for PSU students


More than 200,000 U.S. college students are getting a shady "deal" on their tuition.

A deal so crooked, a class action suit has been filed to set it straight.

The issue may only seem to be in California, but Penn State students can find themselves the victim of it too.

Under California law, the University of California system grants in-state tuition to anyone with a California high school diploma or GED, regardless of his or her legal resident status.

In effect, it gives a $19,000-discount to illegal immigrants per year for every year of study.

Out of the multitude of students enrolled in the UC system (more than 213,000), my brother is one of them.

But with his enrollment, this bill affects me.

Just as I chose Penn Sate University, my brother chose UCLA.

This choice had serious implications on the financial stability of my family and my variety of college choices.

While in-state students at UCLA pay about $7,000 in tuition, out-of-state students pay nearly $25,000.

My brother's steep tuition bills forced me to attain higher grades so that I could earn scholarships and made Pennsylvania colleges my only options.

But even with my choice of a Pennsylvania school, the financial burdens did not end there.

Because of my brother's and my tuition bills, my father had to start another job shortly after retiring from 30 years in the police force.

Because of the law, my dad pays four times the tuition than illegal immigrants pay.

An illegal immigrant, a criminal as defined by U.S. law, is given preference over my father, a government employee who spent 30 years enforcing the law.

The worst impropriety of granting aliens lowered tuition is that their high school diploma, the document necessary for eligibility, is bought with federal tax dollars.

Countless dollars are given annually to the government solely for the high school education of illegal immigrants.

Granted, we reside in rural Pennsylvania. Happy Valley is not the multicultural melting pot of Los Angeles.

But according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, only 19 states contain more illegal immigrants than Pennsylvania. With such a garish precedent as the California law, Pennsylvania becomes a realistic target of similar legislation.

Competition for scholarships is inherently fierce.

At Penn State and at colleges around the country, tuition bills don't seem to be getting any cheaper.

However, I thought my competitors would be weighed by their academic merit, not their residency.

The rewards for immigrating illegally are at an all-time high.

Coupled with our porous border, illegal immigration is an increasingly appealing financial move.

Some may argue that tough actions are being taken to secure the Mexican border. Although this is true, the government issues visas and these visas are consistently overstayed.

The California situation is a cut-and-dry issue in the illegal immigration debate. While other arguments concerning the topic are clouded with facts and figures, this brings only three questions to the table.

Who pays for the education of illegal immigrants?

The law-abiding American citizen does.

Who benefits from the taxpayer's dollar?

The illegal immigrant does.

Who suffers the consequences of the California law?

The American college student does.