Ted McDonough of Salt Lake City Weekly unfamiliar with U.S. citizenship concept

Posted Wed, Feb 8, 2006 at 11:26 am

That person apparently writes "Hits & Misses" for that rag, and he offers a "Miss: Hypocrisy Parade":

It's unfair for undocumented Mexican immigrants to pay in-state college tuition when law-abiding children from other states have to pay higher prices. So went the argument as Utah's House Education Committee gave the thumbs up to reversing a law that now lets undocumented high school graduates pay in-state university tuition rates. The other shoe dropped later when the House, by a vote of 73 to 1, passed a bill to more than double tuition-waver scholarships that will give in-state tuition to out-of-state students. A contradiction? Not at all. The second bill is aimed at attracting students from southern Idaho to Utah State University. It isn't that Utah lawmakers don't want foreigners attending our schools, they just want our kind of foreigners.

Dear Ted: Those "foreigners" are actually your fellow U.S. citizens. If you support illegal aliens - who are citizens of another country - over your own fellow citizens, could you please make it official and renounce your American citizenship? Thanks in advance for your assistance with this matter.

Closely related: "Holly Mullen of Salt Lake Tribune can't think things through".

Comments

Lisbeth (not verified)

Sat, 02/11/2006 - 13:36

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eh (not verified)

Thu, 02/09/2006 - 00:51

These people (MdDonough, Mullen) are reacting emotionally (almost, but not entirely, exclusively emotionally, i.e. it cannot honestly be denied that providing an advantaged opportunity for college to the kids of illegals makes absolutely zero sense, especially since they will most likely ultimately be given amnesty) to the human interest angle of this issue, which we can all see and feel (I can, anyway), so you can't really hammer them too hard about it (kind of like the Churches). But their thinking does not go far enough -- too much emotion, too little thinking. And an aspect in places like Utah is that they probably have not yet gotten a full dose of the social problems large scale Hispanic immigration will surely bring: "bad schools", more crime, including gang and violent crime, poverty and ghetto-ization, etc. Once that happens, more Utahans will take a different position on this issue, as well as any other measures that make it easier for illegals to exist there -- they will realize that it is very unwise to do anything more to make it any easier than it already is for illegals to live in Utah. This is a difficult decision that must be made.

Of course, there is no reason whatsoever that taking on more debt -- most college students graduate indebted -- to pay out-of-state tuition cannot be regarded as one consequence of being in the US illegally. Which we should not seek to make consequence-less.

D Flinchum (not verified)

Wed, 02/08/2006 - 14:37

"It's unfair for undocumented Mexican immigrants to pay in-state college tuition when law-abiding children from other states have to pay higher prices."

Not quite. It's ILLEGAL under 1996 federal law. What's unfair is that newspaper reporters and editors know so little about the issue of immigration that they aren't aware of this but still feel qualified to comment on it. Hello?