Thread: NJ: Rutgers class advises state immigration committee

December 10, 2008
Rutgers class advises immigration committee

By DEBORAH HIRSCH
Courier-Post Staff

When Rutgers-Camden students signed up for the "Colloquium on U.S. Immigration Policy" this fall, they had no idea that their work would be used to inform state policymaking.

On Tuesday, after months of researching issues affecting immigrants in New Jersey, the 20 graduate and undergraduate students presented their findings to the New Jersey Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine created the panel in April 2007 to come up with a statewide strategy for integrating the rapidly growing immigrant population into the larger community. Though the 35 members of the panel have been coming up with their own recommendations for more than a year, they decided to ask the Rutgers students for input on specific topics, said Al Alvarez, who serves as a liaison to the panel from Corzine's office.

"We told them our priorities to research and they took it from there," Alvarez said.

With the help of Christine Thurlow Brenner, an assistant professor of public policy and administration, the students divided into small groups and tackled topics like local centers for labor workers and workplace literacy programs.

Over the course of the semester, they interviewed professionals dealing with the issues they were studying, identified best practices around the country and recommended ways the state could do better.

Kimberly Hill, 20, a political science and Spanish major, urged the state to develop a standard for medical interpreters to ensure that important information isn't left out or misconstrued.

Law student Yoshi Kumara, 28, lobbied for better access to interpreters for immigrants in the legal system. They can get an interpreter in the courtroom, Kumara said, but they need that resource earlier in the process.

Mikel Pride, 27, a public health graduate student, said she wanted the state to do more to encourage immigrants to take advantage of free health-care programs. Often, she said, they don't know such programs exist and either end up using high-cost emergency rooms or simply ignoring serious medical problems.

"It's a public health issue," she said. "If people have a communicable disease, whether they're documented or undocumented, they're still going to be spreading that around, so wouldn't you want to deal with that?"

The students' findings will be compiled for the panel, which may then use some of that information in its report to the governor. That report will be turned in later this month, Alvarez said.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/articl ... 00355/1006

Were there ANY unbiased students on this panel? Did they interview the general public or only professors? This "study" was obviously conducted for the benefit of illegal aliens, as immigrants are not a burden on our system.

Intergrating "immigrants" into the population means the "immigrants" need to make the necessary changes, NOT the citizens. All I see here is ways on how to pander to "immigrants".

Oh my! How did immigrants survive in the past? No interpreters (family members translated for them), no free healthcare (they PAID, like the rest of us had to!).

This is another corrupt governor from one of the most corrupt states in the union. New Jersey like it's sister state Mexifornia is a sanctuary state which is why they with Mexifornia are broke and have one of the highest tax bases including the highest property taxes in the US. New Jersey is a third world state (MS-13 gangs run amok in Newark, remember the three murdered college kids). Yet this p.o.s governor like Annie Schwarzenegger continues to cater to illegal aliens while cutting services and resources for citizens. Why the people in that state don't wake up and toss this rectum hole out is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.

Not a single economist like Jorge Borjas to ask why American taxpayers should foot the bill for these "programs".