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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Young immigrants have special stake in immigration debate

    http://www.oxfordpress.com

    Young immigrants have special stake in immigration debate
    By LILLY ROCKWELL
    Cox News Service
    Friday, April 14, 2006
    WASHINGTON — Laura Castro, 18, brought a large white poster to Monday's massive immigration rally on the National Mall. On it, she had written her high school grade-point average - 4.13 - her class rank and an exhaustive list of extracurricular activities.

    Her point? The Richmond, Va., senior wants to draw attention to the plight of students like her who live illegally in the United States. Because of her status, the aspiring doctor will not be attending a university in the fall.

    "I would have to pay out-of-state tuition, and I can't afford that," Castro said. She criticized the law as "really harsh."

    Castro is hoping Congress will pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also called the DREAM Act.

    Introduced in 2003 with bipartisan support in the House and Senate, the act would make illegal immigrants who have been raised in the United States eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges in their home state. They would also qualify for federal loans and work-study programs, but not for certain federal grants such as Pell grants.

    The act would also allow students who remain in college or the U.S. military to become permanent legal residents, an important step on the road to citizenship.

    Political observers say young immigrants have the most at stake in the national immigration debate and were a driving force behind the huge pro-immigration rallies held last Sunday and Monday. High school students, connected through the Internet and the radio, staged coordinated walkouts throughout the country.

    "Many people just think of illegal immigrants as workers, people who don't earn a high-school degree or people who are ignorant," said Castro, who lived in Colombia until age 12. "But there are many students like me who want to be able to go to college and work."

    The DREAM Act was tacked onto an immigration reform bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of March. Although the reform effort collapsed just before Congress began a two-week recess April 7, many are hoping some provisions of the DREAM Act can still become law.

    "These students are American students," said Melissa Lazarin of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. "They came here through no choice of our own, but nonetheless have made this country their own. In the end we are only hurting ourselves by not allowing kids at this level to pursue higher education."

    But conservative lawmakers and anti-immigration groups say the DREAM Act is just another form of amnesty that will cost taxpayers.

    "Unfortunately, children always suffer when their parents break the law," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes illegal immigration. "The basic problem with the DREAM Act is that because it is a form of amnesty, it sends the message abroad that we really don't care if people enter the United States illegally."

    An estimated 60,000 students could benefit from the legislation. Nine states - Texas, California, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington ??- have laws that allow some immigrant students to be eligible for in-state tuition and state grants.

    States such as Virginia and Georgia considered similar legislation, while other states, including Florida and North Carolina, have gone in the opposite direction and considered proposals to specifically ban illegal immigrants from getting in-state tuition.


    (Story can end here. Optional add follows.)


    Texas' five-year-old law allows students here illegally who have lived in the United States at least three years, and have graduated from a Texas high school or received a GED, to pay in-state tuition at a public university. They also may receive state grants.

    About 400 people enrolled in 2001. The program swelled to 5,093 participants last fall, including foreign students here legally on visas. About 80 percent of the participating students attend community colleges, said Ray Grasshoff, a spokesman for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

    Grasshoff said these students make up less than 1 percent of the million-plus students enrolled in Texas public colleges and universities.

    At the federal level, Congress remains at an impasse in deciding how to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

    The House passed a bill just before Christmas that dealt mostly with border security and enforcement issues, and that would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant. The Senate has been struggling for weeks to pass a more immigrant-friendly version that includes a provision, strongly desired by many businesses, to create a "guest worker" program.

    At the heart of the debate is what to do with the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants who are living in the U.S. and the hundreds of thousands more that pour in each year.

    But in an election year, some observers doubt anything related to this complex, extremely divisive issue will make it through Congress.

    Meanwhile, Castro and thousands of other students are watching and waiting. After graduating in June, Castro will look for a part-time job while attending a community college.

    "I'm hoping something will happen soon in Congress," Castro said.


    Lilly Rockwell is a Washington correspondent for Cox Newspapers.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Controlled immigration is what's so important. I know they want to say what's happening has happened when any new ethnic group immigrated in numbers. And I'm sure there was a period of time for people to get used to them and maybe some of their food choices or ways of doing things. It was a 2 way effort and they became a part of the American fabric instead of trying to destroy it. It's just not happening with this "wave". Coz it's not been a "wave" it's a sunami !! And being poor or new to the country hasn't entitled anyone to a free ride! They say nothing worthwile is ever easy and they are forgetting there are generations of people from every ethnic background here that struggled and are still struggling for the "American Dream" and they just EXPECT us to lay down, roll over, and hand it all to them, because they're new and poor and have the RIGHT to it whether they're legal or illegal. Sorry, don't buy it. We can't absorb and hand over everything to anything group that demands it at the price of our freedom and rights.
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  3. #3
    bornbredhere's Avatar
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    I read that article.

    So!!!!

    A financially poor ILLEGAL student with a 4.15 GPA wants free college?

    While my financially poor LEGAL son with a 4.0 GPA cannot qualify for any type US grant because his 'working poor' parents make too much money?
    And he and his parents have to incur student loans up to the neck to finance his education while our tax dollars pay for an illegal's free education?

    This DREAM Act is a joke and slap in the face to all hard working tax paying American citizens.

  4. #4
    Senior Member JuniusJnr's Avatar
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    One more crybaby who thinks we should change the rules for just her. Sorry, girlie, I don't see it that way......
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  5. #5
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Yep, my daughter is an honor student and her working poor parents don't qualify either so she has to go part time as far as the buget will allow for books and tuition. No bleeding heart here! Not to mention the ones who paid their way through college, only to have their job outsourced or deleated for buget cuts.
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