
SB 160 which passed the California State Senate on a party line vote will be heard in the Assembly Higher Education committee this week. This is on top of AB 540 which was passed several years ago allowing illegal immigrants to pay instate tuition rates, costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Apparently Mr. Cedillo thinks that we should further subsidize their education by taking money away from students who are citizens or legal residents.
Ok…Let’s be fair. I vote that we extend the same rights and benefits to illegals in the US that Mexico extends to illegals in their country. These details are outlined in the Assembly Republican Caucus Analysis:
To place this bill into proper perspective here are excerpts from an article that ran in the Washington Times on 4/6/06 titled “The Mexican Solution,” by Frank Gaffney, Jr.:
Under . . . [the Mexican] constitution first adopted in 1917 and subsequently amended, Mexico deals harshly not only with illegal immigrants. It treats even legal immigrants, naturalized citizens and foreign investors in ways that would, by the standards of those who carp about U.S. immigration policy, have to be called “racist” and “xenophobic.”
For example, according to an official translation published by the Organization of American States, the Mexican constitution includes the following restrictions:
• Pursuant to Article 33, “Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.” This ban applies, among other things, to participation in demonstrations and the expression of opinions in public about domestic politics like those much in evidence in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere in recent days.
Yet, even their maximalist positions generally pale in comparison with the treatment authorized by the Mexican constitution.
So the next time such legislators — and the majority of Americans for whom they speak — are assaulted by Mexican officials, undocumented aliens waving Mexican flags in mass demonstrations here in the United States, clergy and self-described humanitarians, businessmen and other advocates of illegal immigration, ask them this: Would they favor having the U.S. impose the same restrictions on immigrants — legal and illegal — that Mexico imposes on their counterparts there?
Nothing of the kind is in the cards, of course. Nor should it be. Legal immigration and the opportunity for foreign investors and other nationals to contribute to this country are not only one of its hallmarks — they are among the reasons for its greatness.
Still, we should not allow the hypocrisy of others’ treatment of undocumented aliens in their countries to induce us to refrain from taking effective steps to prevent further illegal immigration: by building a fence along our southern border; by enforcing immigration laws in the workplace and elsewhere; and by discouraging more such violations — with potentially grave national security implications — by dealing effectively with those who have already broken those laws by coming here without permission.
[Note: The official text of the Constitution of Mexico appears on the Website of the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house of Congress, of the United Mexican States: http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx/leyinfo/txt/1.txt. An authoritative English translation of the Constitution of Mexico, published by the Organization of American States, appears on the Website of Illinois State University: http://www.ilstu.edu/class/hist263/docs/1917const.html. Quotations in this document are from the OAS translation.]