Now MA Leftists Want In-State Tuition For Illegals. Hey, House GOP—What About A Feder
Yet again, Massachusetts’ leftist lawmakers want to prioritize illegal aliens over the Historic American Nation. Instead of working to improve the lives of Bay Staters, state legislators are pushing a proposal that would make illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition at colleges and universities [In-state tuition isn’t an immigration issue, by Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, January 18, 2023].
The proposal from Democratic State Senator Brendan Crighton has support from Democratic Governor Maura Healey, best known for constantly suing the Trump administration during her time as the state’s attorney general. These bills are popping up nationwide. It’s time to stop them. With Republicans now in control of the House, an immigration patriot must propose legislation to enact a federal moratorium on in-state tuition for illegals.
“I write to express support for expanding access to our public colleges and universities by making all Massachusetts high school graduates who attended our high schools for at least three years eligible for in-state tuition rates, fees, and state-funded financial aid,” then Attorney General Healey wrote to the Joint Committee on Higher Education on July 30, 2019:
Tuition and mandatory fees for the 2022-2023 at University of Massachusetts-Boston are $15,958 for in-state students and $36,931 for out-of-state students. So in-state tuition is a $21,000-per-year subsidy per student, or $84,000 through four years.
As of 2018, at least 13,000 illegal alien children were in Massachusetts K-through-12 public schools, roughly 1,000 in each grade [Immigrant tuition bills catching on—but not in Mass, by Chris Lisinski, State House News Service, June 21, 2021].
Thus, the proposal would cost Bay Staters millions of dollars annually. No official cost estimate exists, but even 100 illegals who received the in-state tuition benefit at a four-year college like UMass-Boston would cost taxpayers $2.1 million annually. If 1,000 or 10,000 received it… well, do the math.
Bottom line: The bill will increase the burden of illegals on taxpayers.
As Republican state representative Marc Lombardo once said, this proposal treats illegals better than U.S. military veterans [Rep: Stories could change minds on immigrant tuition bill, by Sam Doran, State House News Service, July 16, 2015]. If a veteran from Nashua, New Hampshire, or Providence, Rhode Island, wanted to attend a nearby community college in Massachusetts, he would pay the out-of-state rate. So how about in-state tuition for war vets in neighboring states who just happen to be American citizens!
Already, even without this awful proposal to subsidize and reward illegals, state taxpayers pay heavily for them. They pay little in taxes and use welfare at a high rate. Fiscal burden: $2 billion annually, as of 2019.
“The illegal migrant population grew more in Massachusetts than any other state from 2007 to 2017—a 60,000 spike that costs Massachusetts taxpayers and risks public safety, legal immigration advocates say,” Rick Sobey reported for the Boston Herald. At the time, 275,000 illegals had invaded the state.
Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies pointed out the obvious:
“They’re a net fiscal drain because they don’t pay enough in taxes to cover the cost of the social services they use,” Vaughan said. “So the more illegal immigrants, the higher costs to taxpayers. It’s just common sense.”
[Massachusetts illegal immigrant population spikes, increase since ’07 leads nation, June 12, 2019]
Common sense among Open-Borders Leftists—the kind who want illegals to get in-state tuition—is, of course, lacking.
In 2018, by the way, 1.2 million immigrants lived in the state, or about 17 percent of the population [Immigrants in Massachusetts, American Immigration Council, August 6, 2020]. Assuming that the number of illegals was still about 275,000, then they were 22.9 percent of the state’s immigration population.
About 3.1 million people file annual income tax returns in Massachusetts [Haven’t received your Mass. tax refund? Make sure to file 2021 return, by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive, December 12, 2022]. If instead of funding illegals, they received a tax rebate for the amount of subsidy, they would receive about $645.
Conservative lawmakers and Bay State immigration patriots must ask people what they would rather have: tuition subsidies for illegals or several hundred dollars each year.
Even tuition-free community college for American citizens who live in Massachusetts is far cheaper than the burden illegal immigration puts on the state. Cost estimates for tuition-free community college vary greatly, from $50 million to $225 million per year, depending on the program. But both numbers are tiny compared to the $2 billion that illegals consume [Choosing Equity: Options for Affordable Public Higher Education in Massachusetts, by Anastasia Martinez, MassBudget.org, March 1, 2021].
A few observations about this insanity.
Leftists want illegals to keep crossing the border, and so they want to make it appealing with such magnets as in-state tuition. The more who come, the browner the country will be, which will help Democrats win elections. The business lobby loves to exploit cheap labor. Meanwhile, white Americans get the short end of the stick, and wind up living in a “multicultural” society that undermines their culture, language, and unique identity.
Here’s a better idea than in-state tuition for illegals, and not just in Massachusetts, but across the nation. If lawmakers, particularly Republican lawmakers, want to make themselves useful, they should look at improving the earnings of young, working-class whites.
Only citizens should legally vote in state elections, and politicians should serve the interests of the citizens in their districts. Illegal aliens are not citizens.
Lawmakers should force illegals to self-deport by removing the incentives they have to enter the country. Illegals come here for jobs and welfare. Every state and territory needs mandatory E-Verify. States must stop welfare for illegals, and make them ineligible for driver’s licenses.
Despite their liberal tendencies, Bay State voters understand fiscal issues. That explains why the state elects milquetoast Republican governors like Mitt Romney and Charlie Baker, even if they are only marginally better than Democrats.
If Bay Staters learn in-state tuition for illegals costs them several hundred dollars annually, maybe they’ll object.
Granted, higher education costs are too high in this country. Americans carry about $2 trillion in student loan debt. Politicians across the political spectrum should acknowledge something is wrong.
But in-state tuition for illegals won’t help that problem. It will, instead, push more of the bill for higher education onto taxpayers, who receive no benefit in return. This logic also extends to legal immigration. Most legal immigrants are a fiscal drain on taxpayers.
Massachusetts’ in-state tuition bill is more proof that Democrats will never prioritize American citizens over illegals, whom the Treason Lobby party sees as its constituents and route to permanent political power.
That means the only hope for the Historic American Nation lies with immigration patriots in the GOP, who must start pushing for policies to benefit the Historic American Nation, not illegal aliens.
A common-sense proposal: With the invasion at the southwest border and a presidential election next year, an immigration patriot in the House of Representatives should introduce legislation prohibiting states from offering in-state tuition to illegals. It might never pass the Senate, or get by Traitor Joe Biden, but at least it sends a message, and forces Treason Lobby Democrats to speak and vote against it.
Hank Johnson [Email him] is a student of New England politics and popular culture.
https://vdare.com/articles/now-ma-le...-a-federal-ban
