Santa Ana College, a two-year institution in Southern California, is creating a $2,500 scholarship for illegal-immigrant students in memory of a former student who was killed in a highway accident in Maine last month, The Orange County Register reported. The scholarship will honor Tam Ngoc Tran, who was an illegal immigrant herself in pursuit of citizenship and had testified before Congress in favor of the Dream Act. She was a graduate student at Brown University at the time of her death.
The planned scholarship has drawn an outraged response from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, who threatened in a letter to the college’s president to try to yank the institution’s federal money. He called the scholarship “an affront to law-abiding citizens” that showed “a misguided set of priorities.” In a news release, the college noted that the scholarship would be offered by the Santa Ana College Foundation, its separate fund-raising arm.
This scholarship idea gets:an “A” for emotionality and political correctnessan “F” for practicality and very bad precedentAnd Brown Graduate admissions gets a ZERO for non-compliance with federal immigration laws and for fiscal misuse of funding intended for applicants who are in the country legally for educatinal purposes and for American citizens who ARE in compliance with Federal citizenship lawsl. No surprises here.
I find it interesting that these students are called illegal. Many of these students did not make the choice to immigrate to the United States, they were brought by parents. Let us not forget the history of this country. This is a country of immigrants. At a time legal immigration to the US required taking a boat and stepping on American soil. With each wave of immigration the laws began to restrict who was allowed to legally reside in this country. Irish, Italian, Asian or whatever your nationality immigrants have always been met with opposition. Our immigration laws are racist and difficult for poor individuals seeking a better life in this country. Why then are we looking at these new immigrants who are doing the very same thing that the ancestors of anyone who can “legally” say they are American citiizens have done to find a better opportunity in this country. In the past all you had to do was show up at America’s borders. There is enough room and opportunity for everyone willing to take advantage of America. Yes we should follow the rule of law but let us not be greedy and forget how we got here and limit the opportunity of future generations of immigrants. Our laws should reflect our appreciation of America’s history as well as protect our security and interest. As an immigrant and individual who works with immigrants seeking to pursue higher education these laws are difficult for those seeking opportunity and especially for the poor seeking a better life as past immigrants to this country. If they are illegal then every individual in this country is illegal because we are all immigrants or decendents of immigrants who came to this country looking for opportunity. We show that we forget this nations history and show a lack of appreciation for what we have to not offer this opportunity to others and to demonize them for working hard to excel academcially. Institutions have the right to use private money as they choose. And if they choose use private money to help finance the education of an immigrant in need it is the morally right thing to do. I believe in the laws of this nation but they can change and will be changed. There is a moral code that some also choose to adhere to which may be above any nation’s law which is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
An action is illegal when it violates the law. Further, the adjective, “illegal” can be used to modify any noun that indicates a state contrary to law or that was created by an act contrary to law.A partial list would include: an illegal marriage, an illegal contract, or an illegal immigrant.It should be noted that whether or not something is illegal does not necessarily affect its morality. However, to assuage your PC conscience, would it help if we replaced the term illegal immigrant with the phrase, “undocumented democrat?”
Actually I think you’ll find that a very large number of immigrants once able to vote, vote Republican.
Yorklibrary:Your nebulous comment appears to be off topic.1) We are not discussing immigrants, per se, but rather the subset that enter the country illegally.2) It is unclear what you mean by “a very large number.” How large? More to the point, what percentage of illegal immigrants? What is your source?3) How does “voting” Republican repudiate the previous comment. In truth, one can easily say, “A large number of Democrats vote Republican.” Note the term, “Reagan Democrat.”
@ anglo_tejano: Let’s not point out the issues with Yorklibrary’s comments when you cannot see the major issue with your comments. First, please realize that we often apply the term “illegal” to transactions or contracts and that this particular application is appropriate. Second (and more importantly), we do not apply this term to people. People, by definition, cannot be “illegal” because to call a person illegal is, by extension, to make their existence illegal. Third, the law that is broken when immigrants overstay their visas or cross the border without authorization is a federal civil violation that is similar to jaywalking, changing lanes without signaling, etc.–violations of the law that most of us have committed. Yet, we do not continually refer to each other as “illegal jaywalkers,” or “illegal lane changer.” Why not? These are similar violations. The answer is because people like you simply do not like the new immigrants coming into the U.S. now!Finally, you’re an anglo in TEXAS! If you know anything about the history of Texas, you have got to see the irony…. :)