Colleges Ban Illegals. Tax Payers Suffer.
The North Carolina Community College system announced Tuesday that it would no longer admit undocumented students. This decision, made in response to a letter from the State Attorney General, has spawned intense discussion about the rights of illegal immigrants and the cost of educating undocumented students. It seems people have very strong opinions about this subject, but unfortunately many of these opinions are based solely on ignorance and stereotypes. So I beg you, before you rush to form your own opinion, read these facts first:
Myth #1: Sending Illegals to College Costs Taxpayers Money
In December of 2007, the President of the North Carolina Community College addressed this issue head on:
“To attend a community college as an undocumented immigrant, these students will have to pay $7,465 per year as full-time curriculum students, which is $2,090 more than the legislature gives the community college to educate a full-time student. Therefore, there is no state subsidy for these students to attend a community college; these students would more than pay the cost of their community college education. Furthermore, under a federal court decision which allowed the admission of undocumented immigrants to institutions of higher education, the students can receive no federal or state educational benefits. Therefore, they must come up with full tuition, plus fees and books, from their own resources. This $10,000-plus expense is beyond the means of almost any undocumented immigrant who might wish to enroll.”
Myth #2: Illegal Immigrants Are Inundating Higher Education
The 58-college North Carolina Community College System estimates that in the 2006-7 academic year, only 112 degree-seeking students, out of 296,540, lacked proof of legal residency. This is hardly an inundation of our colleges.
Myth #3: Denying Illegals Education Will Save Taxpayers Money
In California alone, the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California’s prisons and jails amounts to about $1.4 billion a year. And in Texas, the cost of providing health care to illegal immigrants was estimated to be over $1.3 billion in 2006.
A national study reported that the largest costs of illegal immigrants are Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion).
NOTE: Education is the smallest number on the list, and if we allow undocumented students to pursue a college education, wouldn’t we actually decrease the cost of health care, food assistance programs and incarceration? Hmm. This seems like more of a solution to me.
After understanding these facts, I wish I had the money to pay for these 112 students to attend college myself. I would much rather pay to educate them rather than incarcerate them. Wouldn’t you?
I’d love to hear your comments on this issue.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
At first glance, prior to reading the rest of the post, I was for the decision, but your facts do seem to indicate otherwise. I agree education rather than incarceration is much better.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Are you catholic? I sense extremism here. You abort illegals, not educate them fool. I had a mexican tell me that they see the USA as a vast region to be conquered. And the common feeling of mexicans (mostly illegal, but also legal) is that weak americans disgust them and give them the right to take what they want from this once great country. There is no debate that illegals cost far more then the could ever be worth as has been proven many times.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I’m not sure what being Catholic has to do with this. In fact, I would guess most Catholics would take a much harder line against immigration than I have, but I don’t want to stereotype and that’s not even the issue. I am sorry that you’ve had one bad experience with a Mexican, but I have experienced exactly the opposite. The Mexicans I have met do not feel like they can take what they want from this country and are very respectful and work extremely hard. And, there is actually a debate as to whether illegals cost far more then they are worth. They are an integral part of our economy and many US employers would be severely damaged if all of their illegal employees were deported. Although it is hard to estimate their impact on our economy, it has been estimated to be worth $1 Trillion. (http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/12/6/104841.shtml) Do you really want to give up a $1 Trillion boost to our country? Even after accounting for the cost of illegals, we still end up ahead and if we have to start deporting them, it will cost even more.
So, I hope you will reconsider your view or at least offer a justification for your opinion. Using your experience with one Mexican to form your own opinion is not productive.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Well sadly we want to punish the poor and weak and drive them out of our land.
So we vote to get tough on immigration. And we lock up anybody who just cant
seem to get that elusive job. We essentially corner the poor to crime. Why not we just got through abolishing welfare to our own needy and we don’t lose sleep over having them incarcerated
either. Problem is here we go again after 16 years of everybody skipping on their
tax bills we can no longer afford anything and our status as a world power is even in question. Now what we incarcerated will be running wild on the streets because wecan’t pay the prison upkeep and they’ll probably find it harder to find a job too. I
wish we put all of our resources into college for all. give them the Iraq money,
the welfare money, the prison money, the money dumped in k-12 so teachers
can live the high-life, and hell maybe even some of the Tax Money!!
January 24th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
My thing is if they are illegals send them back where they came from until they get proper papers. If you get caught doing illegal drugs you go to jaildont pass go, and no two hundred dollars. If you are an illegal in the USA you have more rights and get more free shit from the goverment that a US citizen. So I say send them home and make them get papers, put more guns on the border and stop the madness. They are taking over the country like a bunch of roaches and the Goverment is doing nothing!! ILLEGAL means not legal no matter how you look at it. By the way POA is Pissed Off American!!! Good Day!!!
January 27th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I completely disagree with your comments. Whether we like it or not, illegal aliens are an essential part of our economy and until we can create a manageable way for these workers to gain legal status, it doesn’t make sense for us to “send these people back”.
November 17th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Last I checked there the unemployment rate was +9.6%. I’m sure there are a ton of unemployed American citizens willing to work construction, at restaurants, hotels, etc. The reality is America is broke! We are the land of the free not the freebie. I have no compunction about cancelling all welfare, education, and/or government benefits to illegals. maybe Mexico would not be a drug cartel paradise if the 12 million illegals in America moved back. Imagine. We all hear how hard working they are, and yet Mexico is a dump. They should all go home and work hard to fix their own country and stop dragging mine down further.