When the drive to get to the root of a problem builds to frustration, one can be tempted to lash out at someone nearby who isn’t responsible for the problem to begin with.
In the debate over people from other countries coming to the United States and staying illegally, the frustration level has grown as the nation’s leaders have demonstrated their impotence in achieving substantial progress. We are told our policies and lack ofenforcement have permitted a migration into the U.S. of 11 million people who are not legally authorized to be here. We’re skeptical anyone really knows how many are here illegally.
Regardless, this nation’s policy toward undocumented people is a defining political issue of our age. The lack of solutions at the federal level spin off into communities across the nation.
In April, a bill in the Arkansas Legislature would have allowed Arkansas colleges and universities to charge cheaper in-state tuition to students who reside in the state illegally. It failed to make it out of committee.
Supporters declared the proposed change an issue of fairness. Arkansas is home to young people who have largely grown up here, who have worked hard and earned the kinds of grades acceptable for college admission. But when they go to school, they have one option: Pay out-of-state tuition because they are not legal residents.
“There is no reason we should pay out-of-state when we’ve been here so long,” said Cyndi Beltran, a recent graduate from Bentonville High School.
She was born in Culiacan, Mexico, but her family moved to Bentonville when she was 12 on a tourist visa. That visa expired when she was 15, making her presence a criminal act. Now 18, she’s aff orded protection from President Obama’s deferred action policy that sidesteps enforcement of immigration laws for people who came to the U.S. when they were under 16, are enrolled in school and haven’t left the country in fi ve years.
She expects to pay three times as much for a college education as her fellow high school students.
Some will say that’s fair. We do not.
Serious immigration issues are not going to be solved by cracking down on students with exorbitant tuition fees that stand as barriers to higher education.
People want illegal immigration to be black-andwhite simple. If someone is not here legally, that’s all they want to know. Deny them everything and send them back home. The reality is the United States will never be able to send them all back to their home country.
The Arkansas tuition situation for Beltran and others should not rely on legal status, but on the same local residency requirements applied to any Arkansan. With good grades and significant time as a resident of Northwest Arkansas, they should be admitted as in-state students.
What’s to be gained by denying higher education, through higher fees, to the bright students Arkansas needs to improve its future? If one acknowledges how ludicrous it would be to send Beltran back to Mexico, one should be able to also embrace the idea our society is made better by having more, not fewer, educated residents of Northwest Arkansas.
California, Texas, New York, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Maryland and Connecticut offer in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures website.
Arkansas should join those very smart states.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 05/31/2013