Croom Station Signal

A Hard Working Immigrant Speaks Truth to the Cheap Foreign Labor Lobby

From the ABA Journal Magazine, August 2011:

"I was once an immigrant from a third-world country, where corruption is widespread in all levels of the government.

"Although our constitution guaranteed us freedom of speech, in reality one can easily be executed for saying something inimical to the greedy government officials’ interest.

"The influx of immigrants here from my country of origin greatly boosts that country’s economy. And here is why. Roughly 140,000 employment visas are issued to aliens to work here as skilled and non-skilled worker every year. For skilled worker, one is required to possess a bachelor’s degree.

"However, a degree in a third world country isn't remotely comparable to a bachelor’s degree here because of disparity in quality of education. In a third world country, one is guaranteed a degree by merely paying all the tuition fees and 90% class attendance. The educational institutions there are primarily motivated solely by generating revenue rather than providing quality education.

"Despite the disparity, US is giving equivalent credits to those degrees resulting in employing alien graduates here mostly as teachers and health personnel.

"Now once this alien worker obtains a green card, they will petition for their alien relatives. Most of the petitioned relatives specially the parents will not find a job. After these relatives obtained citizenship in five years, they will put them on welfare—a preconceived intent formulated since the petition was filed. Entitling to benefits can easily be achieved because most foreigners have a tight-knit family and usually live under one roof hence will show no assets at all.

"My country of origin produces a lot of graduates who are employed all over the world despite of our no-quality education. Because part of our culture is to help our relatives back in our country of origin, we send “remittances” out of our monthly pay to that country which is indubit-ably a great boost to their economy and blissfully, to the corrupt government officials."

Read the article (OK, its shamelessly about me), where this revealing story is posted as comment number 5 by "Sam."

GOP Politics of Illegal Alien College Tuition

The thoughtful Americans at the Center for Immigration Studies have one of the more observant (and yet so disappointing) insights into the feckless electoral campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry:

The heated exchange between Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry over the issue of in-state college tuition for illegal aliens illustrates how different candidates might approach a policy problem for which there's no easy answer. Where they come down on this issue shows whether a candidate is able to make tough but right decisions that best serve the national interest.

Rick Perry has been defending Texas's DREAM Act Amnesty Lite.

At the September 22 Florida debate, Texas Gov.Perry defended his support for a Texas law giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens.

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they have been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said. "I still support it greatly."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney replied, "I think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean you don't have a heart, it means you have a heart and a brain."

Perry's snarky soundbite reveals a lot about him. Some 32,000 illegal aliens already received taxpayer subsidies of $40,000 or more for a Texas undergraduate degree course, in place of lawfully resident Texans, citizens and legal immigrants alike. So why does he come down on the side of lawbreaking illegals, and against lawful state residents?

Emotion.  Perry lets his heartstrings be his guide. He feels sorry for illegal aliens who purportedly were brought to this country as minors. Those matters of fact are hardly proven in each case, but Perry substitutes his sympathetic urges for the sort of toughness of thought and steely reasoning necessary to serving as the leader of the free world.

That's not good enough. Candidates who can't resist putting their personal feelings ahead of clearer, though tougher reasoning and allegiance to the requirements of justice are unfit to hold office. In-state tuition for illegals encourages and rewards more illegal immigration. It misallocates limited public resources, which the public has entrusted to officials. It cheats legal residents.