Why should illegal immigrants get tuition breaks?

This is going to get personal - I can feel it coming - but for so many people there is no legal way for them to get here. The laws a couple generations ago were far less cumbersome, far more open, and far less complicated.

At this point in time, if you are trying to get here on anything less than a first-degree relative visa, an extraordinary talent visa, or a category of workers that the US is desperately short of, guess what? You are out of luck. I'm sorry, but the whole "My family did it XYZ way" argument kind of grates on my nerves for a couple reasons:

1) Aforementioned reason that the laws were different 50, 30, or even 20 years ago.

2) Plenty of undocumented immigrant families struggle, do without, and learn English too. That is not unique to 'legal' immigrants.

3) If you happen to be from a third-world country it happens to be far more difficult to get here than if you are from, say, Norway.

My husband came here without a visa, illegally. That was nine years ago. We got married. We've been married for seven years. He still has nothing. Under current immigration law, he can get nothing. We have tried to do everything right. We are doing everything we possibly can to make things right. But, until the law changes, we can not do a damn thing. Yes - if we had things to go back and do over again, we'd do a few things differently. But is that not true for every single person on the planet?

I am getting sick of being crucified over and over and over for one decision made almost a decade ago.

The people that get so demonized in the media happen to be my friends and family, and I take it personally when they get talked about. I have said this for years - make it easier for people to get here legally, and you won't have the problem you have. Child of an illegal immigrant = my son.

I cannot see how withholding education from them is going to benefit them or us. I'd be ok with not having instate tuition as long as they qualify for the same financial aid.

No one is withholding education, I just say they should not get the tuition break. They are not even a legal resident of the COUNTRY much less the state, so how can they qualify for instate tuition.

Elvish, I am sorry for your family's plight, but it does not change my mind.

But it is not exactly like THEY made the choice to come here. And it's not like undocumented folks here have it any easier financially - for pete's sake they are the ones picking our cucumbers and taking care of our kids and slaughtering our livestock for minimum wage or less. Keeping their tuition out of state is going to make it more difficult for them to get an education. And what happens when people do not have access to education?

I cannot buy the argument that some children are more deserving of others. I really have tried to see the other side of this argument and I can't.


I didn't think it would, and that wasn't why I posted it, but it's a hell of a lot different story when you're talking theory vs. real life.

I am saying that those who break the rules shouldn't get special priviledges.

Like it or not, being here illegally is still breaking the rules. Even if the rules may or may not be fair.

I'm not saying that any child is more deserving than others...I am saying that those who break the rules shouldn't get special priviledges

I live between 2 "sanctuary cities", I see firsthand what unchecked illegal immigration brings in real life, and that is why I am against legislature to make to make is easier on illegal immigrants.

I see every weekend car wrecks and traffic at a stand still on the highways due to cars chained together "in-tow", where they'll be taken to Mexico and sold for hi profit, citizens of mexico aren't taxed for taking cars over the border.

I don't think they should get a tuition break.

I'm the daughter of a LEGAL immigrant. I went without a lot of things growing up, I remember when my mother working 12 hour shifts at a factory almost every day and money being tight as she paid for her citizenship. I remember I was ahead of my kindergarten classes, because I learned to read and write as my mother struggled to learn to read and write in ENGLISH. I remember how hard it was for her, a divorced mother of two, and how proud she was to become a US citizen.

I remember having to study in school and being told, the only way I could pay for school was through scholarships and loans. I'm still paying off my student loans.

My mother did every thing right, legal, by the book; as do thousands of other LEGAL immigrants. To have illegal immigrants come over, break the laws and exceptions made for them over and over it's like spitting at us and kicking sand in our face. Why did we struggle and go without, if they get to break all the rules and obtain the same dream?? It's not fair.

Yes, I know that this piece of legislature is aimed at the children of illegal immigrants, but as a child of someone who is followed the path to citizenship, it's something that hits very close to home.

Oh so you are making assumptions, thanks for clarifying......