December 11, 2012

Piling On the Taxpayer: 59 Illegal Alien Students Enroll at In-State Tuition Rates

Monique Chartier

The Providence Journal reports.

The Rhode Island Office of Higher Education said Monday that 59 undocumented students are paying in-state tuition rates to attend a state college or university..

This fall, 56 such students enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island, two at the University of Rhode Island and one at Rhode Island College.

Combined, they paid about $93,000 in tuition, compared with $261,000 they would have paid in out-of-state rates. They pay the full in-state rate and are not eligible for any federal financial aid.

I try not to criticize reporters, especially those here in Rhode Island, especially a reporter who appears to have broken this predictable and unfortunate development. But what does Jennifer D. Jordan mean by "full in-state rate"? In-state tuition is a CUT rate. There's nothing "full" about in-state tuition; it does not cover the cost of educating that student - at URI, not by a long shot. Using the term "full" here can only be described as misleading.

Jobs (i.e., the absence of e-verify), social programs (marked by the state's use of an 666 by-pass number), free health care (Medicaid), free primary and secondary education, and now in-state tuition - our elected officials have inexplicably lengthened, not shortened, the list of enticements for illegal aliens to come to the state and, correspondingly, increased the burden on the state's already overburdened taxpayer.

Terry Gorman's OpEd in today's GoLocalProv could not have been better timed.

What Illegal alien worth his salt, seeing all the above benefits, would not be enticed into making Rhode Island an ideal location for his family? How could he/she resist all of the benefits? We already are seeing the chilling effect Illegal Immigration is having on our State budget. How much more can we sustain without going over our own Fiscal Cliff?

The solution that most of us propose to address illegal immigration is eminently reasonable, minimalist, almost passive: implement e-verify for public and private sector employment, screen out unqualified applications for social programs, cease in-state tution for illegal alien students. This will discourage illegal immigration into the state and, correspondingly, begin reducing the involuntary expenses (primary and secondary education being the largest) that are mandated by federal law. The cost of illegal immigration directly impacts - i.e. INCREASES - both local and state taxes; accordingly, the argument that immigration is a federal problem with solely a federal solution rings entirely hollow. It's time that our state officials stop handing Rhode Island taxpayers the bill for policies that advance a political, selfish, quite destructive agenda and begin acting for the larger good - if not because it's the right thing to do, how about because the state is now dead broke despite being taxed to the max.

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Well, RI taxpayers can afford it. It's not like the state is currently experiencing any severe financial problems. And the massive taxpayer subsidization of these 59 individuals attending college will be worth it in the end; we all know that nobody would leave RI for another state after finishing their education (Happy Holidays, from business-friendly Virginia!).

Posted by: Dan at December 11, 2012 4:33 PM

Wouldn't the solution be to change the criteria needed to qualify for in-state rates? Change it so that only someone who is a legal immigrant is allowed to pay the subsidized rates.

And not for nothing, but why should the gov't get even more involved in the voluntary transactions taking place between employee and employer in the private sector? Why should employers be forced to use e-verify?

Posted by: jgardner at December 11, 2012 5:18 PM

Wouldn't the solution be to change the criteria needed to qualify for in-state rates? Change it so that only someone who is a legal immigrant is allowed to pay the subsidized rates.

jgardner,

I could be wrong but I don't think anyone has a problem with that. As for e-Verify, doesn't it protect the employer and isn't it a non-incentive to illegally migrate here?

Posted by: Max D at December 12, 2012 7:45 AM

this state is so f***** up in the head that if someone proposed it free college tuition might well be given to these illegal alien ADULTS. Just like it is given to the ADULT offspring of our fake "disabled" royalty-the firef***s and the cops.

Posted by: Tommy Cranston at December 12, 2012 1:24 PM

Not totally connected. Yesterday I was speaking with a Chinese guy who runs a computer shop (I have no idea of his status). He offered that he is succeeding because everyone knows Chinese work for pennies (he has a Mercedes roadster).

In any case,he made the point that Chinese schools now start English in the 4th grade (by our computation. Guatemala, Mexico, are you listening?

Posted by: Warrington Faust at December 12, 2012 8:56 PM


When my husband was in the military service he got stationed on Guam,which is a US territory. He was a low ranking enlisted member at the time. By low I mean Airman and then lowest ranking Sargeant.

I wanted to go to the University there and applied for GovAid. It was denied. See we were too poor to have debt and we lived in base housing so we could afford the tuition according to Fedgov. Yeah,right. Couldn't even get a Pell grant. LOL!

My husband inquired on base about any help available and was told there was none. It wasn't until we got home here that we found out help was available.

We sacrificed a lot and I mean no new underwear,no meat in meals etc, and I got to go for a couple of semesters,but we couldn't sustain that and survive.

The thing is that I couldn't get the resident tuition rate,even though my husband was a member of the military in a low ranking pay scale,both he and I are natural born US citizens and we had no choice but live there.

But we should be happy now that illegal
aliens will get in-state tuition rates.

Posted by: helen at December 13, 2012 1:36 AM


By the way,my husband had to work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week with, of course, no overtime or extra benefits of any sort.

He also had another duty in addition to his regular job.

Posted by: helen at December 13, 2012 1:42 AM


This may be tiresome but I also forgot to mention that while we lived on Guam for 3 1/2 years we did not have a telephone. It just didn't fit into the budget.

Posted by: helen at December 13, 2012 2:24 AM

The TEA PARTY will not reduce its bombardment of these twin issues, on both the American Public and Congress as a need to enact “THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” ( H.R. 2885), containing the mandatory E-Verify provision. This is an imperative to remove illegal aliens from the workplace and regenerate millions of jobs to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Nothing difficult about this policy, except that state and federal legislators need to be harshly reminded by the voters that this nation needs to protect its borders and people from further invasion. In conclusion, a far more controversial law is to force the passage of the “BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ACT (H.R.140). This exceeds every financial illegal immigration welfare program, as this aspect represents not in the hundreds of millions, but hundreds of Billions of dollars? We are supporting other countries poverty, to the detriment of our taxpayers. These billions of dollars should be supporting our own impoverished, not a free education for the children of illegal alien parents or the growing lines of foreigners arriving in our hospitals with their children. The simple fact of one stroke of the pen, the correct number of votes could alter illegal alien children getting instant citizenship because their parents smuggled them into our country or came here undetected in the womb of a mother. If this amendment to the 14th Amendment is not altered the payout for the “foothold” babies of illegal aliens will go on forever, and the costs doubled and tripled. Skilled workers YES! Poverty NO! And NO Amnesty?

AMERICA DOESN’T HAVE A REVENUE ISSUE, IT HAS A SPENDING ISSUE? PRESIDENT OBAMA GETS HIS VOTES FROM MOSTLY PEOPLE WHO WANT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, WHILE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO CARRY THE “FREELOADERS”.

Posted by: Dave Francis at December 24, 2012 2:44 PM
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