Thread: Suing the Government.

We can possible join this Lawsuit. We need to speak to William.




http://www.vdare.com/Mann/050815_tuition.htm

August 15, 2005

Our Legal Eagles Counter-Attack Over In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens and "Standing to Sue"
By Juan Mann

The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) is trying a new tactic in the battle against in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

It’s filed a formal complaint [PDF] against the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for not enforcing existing anti-discrimination laws.

What a concept!

WLF got the idea from a recently unsuccessful suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas—(Day v. Sebelius).

Basically, WLF decided to take the Kansas lemons and make Texas lemonade.

WLF Chief Counsel Richard Samp explained to me Friday via e-mail:

"I thought you might be interested in a complaint [PDF] filed this week by the Washington Legal Foundation against the State of Texas. Texas is one of the eight states that provides in-state college tuition rates to illegal aliens, despite an IIRIRA [JM: the 1996 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act, called the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act"] provision that prohibits the practice.

"Unfortunately, a federal district court in Kansas recently ruled that individual citizens have no right to sue to enforce IIRIRA, even though they have been injured (i.e. they are forced to pay higher tuition rates than illegal aliens pay to attend a state university). The Kansas court said that only the Department of Homeland Security is permitted to enforce IIRIRA. So we decided to take up the district court’s suggestion.

"We filed a complaint against Texas with DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which is supposed to investigate civil rights violations under the immigration laws. We claim that Texas practice denies the civil rights of US citizens living outside the State who are denied the same in-state rates given to illegal aliens."

Hats off to the WLF!

And let’s hope that Daniel Sutherland and the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties do their jobs.

The American people really have nowhere else to turn. The federal district court in Kansas asserted that the Immigration Act does not give private citizens their own right of enforcement for immigration violations, among other things:

"The Secretary of Homeland Security shall be charged with the administration and enforcement of this chapter and all other laws relating to the immigration and naturalization of aliens, except insofar as this chapter or such laws relate to the powers, functions, and duties conferred upon the President, Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the officers of the Department of State, or diplomatic or consular officers. . . ." 8 U.S.C. § 1103(a)(1) (Day v. Sebelius, note 7)

So if the federal courts say there’s no private right of action available for citizens to sue here, the DHS must do something about it!

Because the fact that American citizens from other states are forced to pay higher state college tuitions than illegal aliens is a screaming "equal protection" violation!

Why should illegal aliens (who happen to be residing illegally in Kansas, for example) pay lower tuition rates than American citizens from Nebraska who attend the University of Kansas?

The problem here is "standing to sue" . . . the question of whether or not an American citizen has a valid right of action to have his or her "day in court" on a particular issue.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform explained the first layer of what happened on the "standing" issue in the Kansas case.

But a “Washington lawyerâ€

Why should illegal aliens (who happen to be residing illegally in Kansas, for example) pay lower tuition rates than American citizens from Nebraska who attend the University of Kansas?

This is totally absurd. Illegal aliens shouldn't even be here and on top of that, discrimination against US citizens to have to pay a higher out-of-state tuition is being gotton away with. Something is wrong somewhere and it must be corrected. Suing the colleges for discriminatory practices might be won.

Then perhaps we could get them to file a case on illegals getting welfare benefits which also is against the law.