No Illegal Immigrants in NC Community Colleges

(You can also view this post at Associated Content!)

A 1982 Supreme Court ruling says that illegal immigrant children are entitled to an education in the public U.S. system through high school. Somehow people got it in their minds that this automatically meant that illegal immigrants are welcome in public community colleges and state universities as well.

In North Carolina, the state attorney general has passed down new guidelines to all 58 of the state's community colleges barring the enrollment of illegal immigrants. The new rules go into effect on Tuesday. Students who are illegally in the United States and will be graduating from high school this month (after leeching from the public school system for numerous years) will no longer be admitted into North Carolina community colleges.

These guidelines do not effect the 16 public universities located in North Carolina, so those are still legal options for the illegal immigrants - for now.

Of course, Hispanic advocacy groups are up in arms and outraged. This is the first decision of its kind, which means that it will likely be challenged in court after the inevitable parade of protests and petitions.

As for those who are undocumented but have received their acceptance letters before the cutoff date of Tuesday, they will still be allowed to attend the community college. The summer session will be starting in just a few short weeks.

As for the 16 public universities that will still accept illegal immigrants, many undocumented prospective students are complaining that they can't afford the out-of-state tuition bills (since they obviously don't have legal residence in the state or the United States in general) and are not eligible for state or federal financial aid (since they obviously don't deserve to leech any more of the government's money after so many years of federally-allowed public school attendance).

So, why don't undocumented students apply for citizenship? Some say its a lengthy and expensive process.

You know what else is supposed to be a lengthy and expensive process? COLLEGE! If you can't hack the tedium and annoyance and price of going through the process to be a legal citizen, why should you deserve the right to attend the tedium and annoyance and price of higher education?

(1) Anti-illegal-immigration groups argue that illegal immigrants are stealing U.S. jobs from legal American citizens.

(2) Pro-illegal-immigration groups argue that most illegal immigrants are doing jobs that most Americans don't want to do in the first place, like picking fruit and janitorial services and menial tasks.

If (2) is true, then why would illegal immigrants need higher education? The only reason for getting higher education (other than "bettering yourself") is to get a better job that is higher up on the corporate ladder - jobs that legal American citizens are already struggling to fight for in the marketplace today.

This just proves that (2) is false and (1) is true.

I just don't see any possible other explanation. It's probably because I'm biased against illegal immigration, but look at the logic. The ONLY reason why you go to college or basically any higher education than high school - is to get a better job with better pay. And the definition of "better job" is almost certainly the subset of jobs that are NOT these "degrading" jobs to which American citizens would supposedly turn up their noses. Which means that illegal immigrants want to take away jobs from American citizens.

Q.E.D.!

I think that it's frankly a brilliant idea on North Carolina's part, and that it needs to take effect in the public universities as well and then spread to the other states. They are totally allowed to do so, given that the Supreme Court only mandates allowing criminal illegal immigrants into our public schools until high school.

I want to see the looks on protesters' faces when their tirades against such laws are faced against this plain and simple argument. And for those of you who, like me, are attacked with the "they're only taking away jobs Americans don't want to do" argument over and over, now you have this bit of weaponry in your arsenal.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS ILLEGAL.

(The article about the decision)


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Letter to RedEye: CTA Rate Hike

I got printed again in the RedEye! Here's the letter I sent them - the italics are the portion that they decided to print. Sad, really - they kept the part where I complain, but left out the part where I suggest how to make things better.

To RedEye:

Okay, so to make up for this lack of funding, they not only want to raise the fares based on which method you pay with but magically what time you're having to make your trip? Unfortunately, I don't GET to change my game plan. My game plan involves having to ride the CTA between 6:30am and 9:30am and then again between 4:00pm and 7:00pm.

It's called a JOB. I don't get to call in to work and say, "Sorry, boss, but to save money I'm going to have to come in at 10am because they charge extra on the CTA to get to work when I'm supposed to."

With that kind of flawed logic, they should get it over with and charge us double the fare - punishment for having a job and contributing to society, I'm sure.

How about if THEY step up and start FIXING things as a game plan?

If they're already threatening to cancel 40-something bus routes, why not be SMART about it? Why not just threaten to cut 50-something routes, but use the EXTRA buses and drivers from those extra cancelled routes and improve service on the EXISTING routes?

Put 3/4 of the workforce from the extra cut routes into extra buses and drivers so riders can USE the buses. That extra 1/4 of the workforce? Put that money towards hiring some HELP to figure out why buses keep bunching and how to eliminate the problem! I can think of SEVERAL research methods to figure it out - I'm sure they could come up with ONE and put that extra money towards implementing it and making our public transportation system at least tolerable.

Because tolerance is currently running thin. And we'd rather have our money working FOR us, rather than flushing it down a failing system like we currently are.

Aaron Samuels, 23
Bridgeport Read more!