I have an idea I would like to propose to California governor Gray Davis, a new piece of legislation that he may be interested in adopting for the state of California.
The bill would be aimed at drug users, but not in the typical fashion one may expect a drug bill to work. The bill would function like this: If an individual can prove to the state of California that they are a daily illegal drug user, then the state will give the drug user $5,000 every four and a half months. This way people are encouraged to become avid narcotics users while at the same time depleting the state treasury.
What? You don't think Gov. Davis will buy it? I do, and for good reason.
Good old Gray Davis and the University Of California Board of Regents did a perplexing thing last Thursday. It enacted a new policy that will allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to all University of California schools, but with one catch: You have to prove to the state of California that you are an illegal immigrant.
That is, prove you are in violation of federal and state law, and have been in violation for a minimum of three years. Upon proof of unlawful entry and residence in this country, you will then be invited to take advantage of the UC school system.
Still think my new drug bill is crazy?
If Californian is going to pass legislation that not only encourages but rewards illegal activity, then isn't it safe to assume that the desired effect is an increase in crime? As out of bounds as my proposed drug bill sounds, just wait until Gray Davis hears about it. He seems to jump at the opportunity to rip off the California taxpayers (remember the energy crisis?) and the new tuition policy maybe his worst transgression yet.
I am unable to see any logic or fairness behind this policy.
Allow me to demonstrate the avoidable unfairness. I am an Arizona resident, and I have just been accepted into the University of California Los Angeles. I will pay just under $15,000 for my schooling a year, so roughly $60,000 in total for my school. At the same time there is someone who is in the United States illegally, who should be deported, and would like to attend UCLA as well. The fact that they are here illegally will not be something used to prevent them from being accepted. Upon gaining entrance to the school they will pay just under $4,000 a year or $16,000 in total for their schooling.
I pay nearly four times more money because I'm not a self-avowed criminal?
Fairness aside, let's explore the logic (or should I say extreme lack thereof) of the new tuition policy. Taxes help pay for the UC school system. Illegal immigrants don't pay taxes. Under the old guidelines, illegal residents could attend California schools and pay the out of state tuition price. That, at least, was one way to compensate for the lack of tax paying.
Alas, those days are over. As if illegal aliens didn't already put an undue burden on the sick California economy enough, this policy will surely put them in a strangle hold.
There is an even larger national threat to this new policy. The reason an illegal alien can take advantage of this new plan is because the UC isn't responsible. The university doesn't believe that they must take the time to determine the citizenship status of students and report violators to the proper authorities.
Forget the fact that the UC now will be making illegals prove they are, in fact, illegally here. Instead, pay attention to their apathy. Their decision to look the other way and not report individuals breaking the law is a security threat to the United States of America.
A terrorist could come to the country and stay here illegally, plotting any kind of suicidal mass murder, and so long as he was attending UC, he would be under a blanket of protection.
If the school won't say anything about an illegal Martinez, then most likely it won't say anything about an illegal Mohammed.
Don't think that the Feds will be able to find these terrorists on expired visas, as was the case post September 11. They won't have visas.
It will work as follows: Terrorists will gain access into Mexico first. As news spreads about California offering monetary incentives to illegal aliens there will be a revamping of new ways to enter the country undetected. Once in the country illegally, the terrorist will be able to hide first in the California secondary education system, which doesn't even ask to see proof of citizenship, and then in the blanket of protection provided by the UC.
Look out, America, we are at war, and apparently the state of California has forgotten that.
Lest we become more of a victim, we should be closing all our borders, not offering a state funded terrorist protection plan.
Rob Jones is a political science junior. Reach him at
rob.jones@asu.edu.
