Mexican immigrant wins Purpose Prize: $100,000 for illegal alien scholarships

Rich folks love their gardeners, and now Catalino Tapia of the Bay Area Gardeners Foundation is $100,000 richer since he's one of the winners of this years "Purpose Prize" (purposeprize.org), an award from Civic Ventures which is a group funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Templeton Fund. And, what's he going to spend it on? Helping Hispanic kids pay for college and related expense, irrespective of whether they're here legally or not. And, to make the race-based support for illegal activity that much sweeter, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza serves on the panel of judges. And, even better, NPR offers a heartwarming report on it here:

Catalino Tapia crossed the border from Mexico into the United States 40 years ago with a sixth-grade education and only $6 in his pocket. He became a legal resident.. The Gardeners Foundation also does not ask if a student is documented. Four out of its nine scholarship recipients are undocumented. The foundation nearly doubled the number of scholarships this year...

I hate to throw cold water on NPR's support for illegal activity, but I'd imagine that there were more than nine applicants for their scholarships, and I'd imagine that some of those who were rejected were U.S. citizens. If so, then those illegal aliens may have cost U.S. citizens their chance at college. On the bright side, some of those U.S. citizens might realize there are limits to a race-based support for illegal activity.

In addition to Murguia, judges were Sherry Lansing (chair), Conchy Bretos, Bob Buford, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Fred Davie, Mitchell Fromstein, David Gergen, Jennie Chin Hansen, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Suzanne Braun Levine, Peter Osnos, James Phills, John Pepper, Sindey Poitier, Rey Ramsey, Cokie Roberts, General Eric Shinseki, Alan Solomont, Jeff Taylor, Thomas J. Tierney, and Harris Wofford.

Immigration2008a · Sat, 12/06/2008 - 12:26 · · Importance: 4