Illegal Immigrants Ought to be Allowed Free Instate Tuition - Essay Example

Task: Illegal Immigrants ought to be Allowed Free In Tuition If a person enters a country legally with the intention of living there, the person is an immigrant. However, if the person lacks legal documents or the documents expire, the person is an illegal immigrant. It is such people that Tom Fitton says they must not gain access to subsidized tuition. In my regard, this is an extremely misinformed opinion. All US inhabitants should be helped, possible, to gain the utmost level of schooling achievable. Fitton uses the law to justify the denial of subsidized tuition to illegal immigrants. It is in the same reference that he disparages the efforts of some states and institution to aid in immigrant education. The chief law governing immigration is the INA Act of 1952. This law specifies under which circumstances a person becomes a legal or illegal immigrant. This law specifies the privileges and restrictions of an illegal immigrant. The writer specifically opposes the Maryland dream act, which, contrary to the INA, allows provision of subsidized tuition to illegal immigrants. The INA has a fierce guarded against interference. The judiciary does not meddle into immigration affairs unless in the occurrence of a constitutional right infringement. The president has no power over it. This congress regulates this law. There are limited chances of amendments unless by popular opinion in a referendum. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled against educational discrimination in a class action suit. Mexican children living in Texas in 1982 filed the Plyler vs. Doe case. The court decided that the children deserved humane treatment. The law is, therefore, no defense for inhumane acts. The writer goes on to refer to the aiding of aliens as handouts to law breakers. Illegal immigrants constitute more than eleven million of the total population (Preston 2010). This is a quite significant sum. This would then mean the US has at least eleven million criminals. The chance that they will one day decide to return to their country is dreadfully dismal. This also emerged in the 2009 census results (Preston 2010). This means they will continue living in the country and bear children. This creates another class of immigrants; children of illegal immigrants. These children would also then be criminals. The process will go on, as more children come forth. These children do not know any other home except their country birth. This also translates to the fact that the probability of these children deciding to go back to their home country is minimal. It would be wise, then, to accept that this class of lawbreakers may be here for good. If this entire people lack access to education, then the rate of illiteracy will go up among the population of the country, immigrant of otherwise. Illiteracy is not an isolable variable but one that has links to various social and economic effects. It is evident that lack of education increases the chance of people engaging in crime. This implies that there will be a growing percentage of the population whose circumstance inclines them to crime. The effects of increased crime rates are innumerable. Apart from the harrowing indicators of a certain number of murders per hour, there are significant social and economic effects associated with crime. The government mains responsibility is to ensure the safety of its citizens. This includes from both external and external threats. If crimes rates increase, then the government will be failing in its main duty. Various foreign policies get adoption to ensure safety from external threats. This includes military intervention in other countries, most recently in Libya. What would be the purpose of such stringent actions if Americans were unsafe in their own neighborhoods? Fitton also alludes to the fact the money used is the tax money. Does it mean that immigrants do not pay tax? The number of illegal aliens working in the US is above 10 million. In this population, 25 percent is in agriculture, 17 percent in menial domestic and office work. 14 percent are estimated to be in building, while twelve percent are in food preparation (Colton-Sonnenberg 5-6). The withdrawal of such a percentage of the American workforce would have enormous results. In fact, business experts have argued that the economy would collapse (Colton-Sonnenberg 4); this alludes to the dependence of the country on these illegal immigrants. Then it becomes quite hypocritical to depend so much on immigrants’ labor and at the same time deny them a basic human requirement. Aliens, as the law calls them, also pay taxes. They play a part in the economic development of the US apart from improving their own communities (Geigenberger 3-4). Debaters argue that American citizens can do the same jobs done by immigrants if only the wages would be better. This resulted to a bill that punishes companies for employing immigrants. Immigrants offer a cheap human resource, first, because they lack education. If they received a proper education, the probability of immigrants diluting the labor market would reduce. Conversely, the government, apart from punishing companies, which offer jobs to immigrants at home, is doing nothing to stop companies from taking jobs away from America. Many multinationals are today manufacturing their products in Asian countries, especially china, where labor is cheap. The people who benefit more are in most cases enemies of the US. China, in regard of the recent cyber espionage discoveries, can easily be classified as an enemy country. Therefore, there is every reason not to deny immigrants a chance to education, the demerits of doing so are higher than those of educating them. The reference of the appointees of Montgomery College, by the writer, as misguide may be out of ignorance. A good test of principle as regards educating immigrants and their children is to evaluate real case studies of immigrants living in the US. Munoz (2009) documented cases of children of illegal immigrant attempts to obtain a university education at city university at NY (CUNY). Munoz recounts that, on her first day of teaching sociology of immigration, five students wanted her audience, in private, after the class. All of them hoped she could help them by teaching them how to get their ‘papers’. Among them was Luisa. She had entered the US at the age of five. Their migration was in search of medication for their father who was suffering from an unusual disease. The family obtained a visa, and after some time their father was recovering. After the expiry of their visa, they decided to live in the US. She started school while her parents worked in the fabrics industry. They migrated to New York after the enactment of proposition 187. After of twelve years of residence, she had passed her high school despite working part time at the same time. After a little enquiry, she discovered that she could not apply for a position in a first-rate university despite her grades. She had to contend with a community college. She did not qualify for any loans, and she depended on her saving. This meant she had to drop out after some time to look for fees, and then go back to continue. This story is not unique, in fact, it represents 60, 000 of other such stories. Immigrants are people with dreams and aspirations. Denying them education is formulating a personalized solution to a problem of structure. There are varied courses for migration. Some of these reasons have their origin in America, for example, the NAFTA agreement. Denying them education is a sure way of developing a lost generation of talented young people who do not realize their potential. Works Cited “Illegal Immigrants, Illegal Benefits”. Editorial. The Washington Post. Ed. 24 Sep. 2011: web. “ Number of Illegal Immigrants in U.S Fell, study says”. Editorial. The New York Times. Ed. 1 Sep. 2011: web. Munoz, Calorina. A Dream Deferred: Undocumented Students at CUNY. Radical Teacher 84. Spring (2009): 8-17. Web. Colton-sonnenberg, Ana. The Present Debate about Illegal Immigration. Norderstedt: Auflage, 2008. Print. Geigenberger, Juia. The Lasting Value of Legal Immigration for the US of America. Norderstedt: Auflage, 2007. Print. Read More