“Illegal” is inaccurate

In the state of Maryland, where I live, a bill just passed the state legislature allowing that children of families who are not legal residents of the U.S. may pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities…providing that the family has paid state and federal taxes for the past three years and the student is a graduate of a state public high school. It seems reasonable to most sane people, but a few on the political Right who get their BVDs in a twist over “illegal immigration” are mounting a petition drive to put on the next election ballot a referendum to repeal the law. This before the law has even been signed by Governor O’Malley.

After writing to two of the locals who are spearheading this issue, and getting a thoughtful if ill-conceived reply from one, here is the letter I wrote to the editor of the local daily newspaper:

We need some clarification in this recent dust-up over the question of allowing students who do not have permanent residency visas to pay in-state tuition at Maryland colleges and universities. We need to get away from emotions and self-righteous posturing, and get down to principles.

Principle #1: it is delusional to think the in-state tuition bill somehow will reward or encourage illegal immigration. There’s not a single person in any nation in the world saying as a result of this law, “Hey, let’s sneak into the United States, settle in Maryland, and after 10-15 years of struggle our kids can go to Hagerstown Community College without having to pay international student rates. Wow, we will have so exploited the system!”

Principle #2: let’s drop the term “illegal immigrants” as it is inaccurate. When people use the term “illegal immigrants” far too often the image in their mind is of Mexican and other Central American people scurrying across the U.S. border in the dark of night in order to “steal jobs and benefits from hard-working Americans.” While that image has some basis in that nearly 3/4 of all so-called illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Central America, the fact is only slightly more than half of these immigrants gain entry to the United States by crossing the border illegally. According to the Pew Research Center, quite probably nearly half of our “illegal immigrants” enter the U.S. legally: on a tourist or business visa. They overstay the visa’s limitation while working to gain their residency visa which allows them to become permanent residents, and allow them to work on becoming U.S. citizens.

These are not people the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (I.C.E.) would, or do, deport. These are people who are working hard, complying with the requests the federal government makes of them. They are filing the proper paperwork, they are paying the myriad fees and penalties the government demands, they are doing everything asked of them but they are stuck in an immigration system that is beyond broken, beyond hopeless.

Despite this, these people who come to our country continue to strive to overcome. They are issued Employee Identification Numbers by the federal government, through which they obtain employment because they have a specialized skill-set that cannot easily be duplicated. They pay local, state, and federal taxes, including paying into Social Security (from which they will never derive a penny). They are an integral part of the fabric of our community, and still some of us want to treat them like second-class humans.

We want to deny them the benefits of the system they have paid into with their taxes, benefits others are able to enjoy.

We want to deny children who have been part of our communities for years the chance to approach something approximating parity with their classmates, friends, neighbors. They will not get to Harvard or Yale or Princeton because of this law, but maybe, just maybe, they can get an Associate’s Degree from HCC and have a chance at a reasonably decent life, despite the fact they had no say in how they were brought to this country.

We want to argue that this is a matter of not rewarding law-breakers…we who regularly break laws like the speed limit, running traffic lights, cheating on our taxes, stealing office supplies from our employers, looking the other way when our leaders in government and business pillage the public trust…”Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”

To Mssrs. Parrott and Shank, and to those who agree with them: put down your stones.