Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Sen. Hanger -- raising taxes on citizens to pay for illegals

I have one question for Senator Hanger--just who are you representing? Obviously not the voters in the 24th.

Here's a prime example: SB 1204. On the surface it looks innocuous enough, saying that in-state tuition is prohibited for illegal immigrants. But when reading further you notice these caveats:

"any person shall be eligible for in-state tuition who: (i) has resided in Virginia while attending high school; (ii) has graduated from a public or private high school in Virginia or has received a General Education Development (GED) certificate in Virginia; (iii) has resided in the Commonwealth for at least three years on the date of high school graduation; (iv) has registered in an institution of higher education; (v) has provided an affidavit stating that he has filed an application to become a permanent resident of the United States and is actively pursuing such permanent residency or will do so as soon as he is eligible; and (vi) has submitted evidence that he or, in the case of a dependent student, at least one parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis, filed, unless exempted by state law, Virginia income tax returns for at least three years prior to the date of enrollment."

I notice that he puts in the bit about requiring them to pay state taxes for three years. But that won't even come close to covering the costs of a four year education. Illegal immigrants should not be rewarded financially for their illegal status. Illegal immigrants are openly breaking the law. They have no regard for the rules that govern our country. So why does Hanger want to reward them?

Thankfully, the House had enough sense to delete most of this nonsense. The bill as it stands now reads:

"An alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, and therefore ineligible to establish domicile pursuant to § 23-7.4, shall not be eligible on the basis of residency within Virginia for any post-secondary educational benefit, including in-state tuition, unless citizensor nationals of the United States are eligible for such benefits in no less an amount, duration, and scope, without regard to whether such citizens or nationals are Virginia residents."

Hey Senator, I thought we had a transportation crisis--isn't that why you consistently vote to raise our taxes? Tell you what--let's save some money by NOT rewarding illegal behavior and put it towards this so-called crisis.

[Reprinted from In-Politically Correct, February 16, 2007]

3 comments:

Steve Harkonnen said...

Our area is inundated with illegal aliens because the local law enforcement is powerless and cannot make arrests. This is why I stress calling ICE (1-866-347-2423) and reporting any suspected illegal immigrant activities to them.

I would also hope that Senator Hanger be fully aware of the implications of this bill. We must NOT continue to reward illegal immigration. This explains why we have so many of them in our area.

Steve Harkonnen said...

PS - I have also invited Sen. Hanger to post a comment here. He's a good man. I also know his son, Chad, through the local music scene. Good family. I can't believe that Sen. Hanger would back this bill.

Lynn R. Mitchell said...

I paid for my kids' education K-12 because I home schooled them. No tax breaks; my tax money still went to the public school system.

I am now paying for my kids to attend college - no free ride - and I'm a tax-paying U.S. citizen.

Sen. Hanger proposes my hard-earned tax money pay for illegal immigrants to attend college free.

Something is terribly wrong here. I pay; they don't. I'm the citizen; they aren't.

In other words, it now appears that those who are illegally in this country, breaking our laws, are rewarded for their illegal behavior ... while those of us who are law-abiding are forced to pay for rewarding the illegals.

No more. It's time for it to end.