Help citizens or illegal aliens?
Posted by E Van Staaveren on Wed, 07/01/2015
All students should have an opportunity to attend college, says Pamela Prosise in her op-ed in the Statesman Journal, June 30. She advocates extending to illegal aliens the benefit of publicly-funded tuition assistance (Oregon Opportunity Grants), as called for in Senate Bill 932 now pending in the Legislature.
Note that Ms. Prosise is a retired teacher of English to students who come into the school system not speaking English. Teachers of English language learners, along with many other persons in the educational system, have a vested interest in a large supply of foreign students who need English-language instruction. Teachers’ unions and associated unions made large contributions to Yes on Oregon Safe Roads, the political action group (SOS Orestar i.d. no.16889) supporting Measure 88 which would have extended the benefit of official driver cards to illegal aliens. See these amounts given in 2014 to the YES on Oregon Safe Roads campaign:
American Federation of Teachers – Oregon Issue PAC (5486) - $5,000
Oregon AFL-CIO - $703
Oregon AFSCME Council (75) - $12,500
School Employees Exercising Democracy (249) - $20,000
SEIU Local 503 - $100,000
SEIU Local 49 Committee on Political Education (4213) - $20,000
To see all contribution and expense records for the Yes on Oregon Safe Roads campaign, click here. The day-by-day reports of financial transactions (receipts and expenditures) of YOSR show names of contributors and amounts they have contributed. A summary record is available here; to see 2014 summary, click on the “Prev” link.
You can view here the 2014 summary records for the Protect Oregon Driver Licenses campaign. Detail of contributions is here.
Ms. Prosise disdains use of the term illegal alien, which is the correct legal term defining persons who are present in this country in violation of U.S. immigration laws, usually by sneaking across borders via clandestine means, or knowingly overstaying the allotted time of their visas.
In her arguments for extending tax-paid tuition assistance to illegal alien students, Ms. Prosise is so narrowly focused that she does not see the consequences of open borders. She apparently believes national boundaries are unnecessary, undesirable, and we should not attempt to maintain them.
She acknowledges no difference between citizens and non-citizens, nor between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.
She is blind to the history of this country which was built by mostly law-abiding, patriotic citizens, many of whom gave their lives in wars to establish and maintain the country. For over two centuries, honesty and fair play characterized the lives of most citizens, resulting in a prosperous country with political freedom and a good quality of life -- until recent decades when massive waves of illegal and legal immigration began to destabilize society here. We now see large multinational business corporations increasing their political power, thriving on the cheap labor provided by high levels of immigration. Also, many smaller businesses cheat Americans by encouraging illegal immigration and profiting from the depressed wages that follow.
The path Ms. Prosise advocates would be disastrous for Oregon and this country. Most citizens understand this instinctively. They were not “misled” by the Referendum on driver licenses for illegal aliens. They voted for their own interests, and for the preservation of our country. The purpose of immigration laws is to protect the interests of citizens. All advanced countries have immigration laws, and those that don’t enforce their immigration laws face ever-increasing chaos.
