Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

February 13, 2007

CT Legislature Mulls In-State Tuition for Illegals

It really pays to come to this country illegally. Now my home state is considering a bill that will allow illegals like Isaac Montiel who live here to receive in-state rates for our state college system:

A bill before the state legislature would allow students like Montiel, who lives in West Haven and attends Eli Whitney Regional Vocational Technical School in Hamden, to pay in-state tuition. The proposal is the focus of a hearing before the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee at 10:30 a.m. today.

A similar bill the legislature considered in 2005 came close to becoming law, making it through three legislative committees easily before being defeated in the House of Representatives by a 12-vote margin.

More:

The Connecticut bill requires students to have attended two years of high school in state and to have graduated from an in-state school. To get in-state tuition, those students must file an affidavit with the school they will attend stating they have applied for legal immigration status or will apply if they become eligible.

The article gives us a sob story about illegal Isaac Montiel, an 18-year-old who followed his mother here three years ago, and who gets decent grades in school. According to Courant writer Mark Spencer, he's a "typical teenager" who likes BMX biking, skateboarding and wearing baseball hats. We also get quotes from members of a group called Democracy Works about how "every child deserves the chance to go to college" and how we shouldn't penalize "the children for the decisions of the parents."

Let me be the first to inform the members of Democracy Works that Montiel and his mother are not even a part of our democracy. They, among thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of others, decided that our immigration laws didn't apply to them and decided to jump to the front of the line. I realize that Mexico is not exactly a paradise, but does that mean we should be opening our arms to everyone from Mexico who wants to come here? It's our country. We, by our laws, decide who gets to come here. It's not up to them.

And now people like Montiel are about to be rewarded by getting cheap college tuition. Like I said, it really pays to come here illegally.