Texas to Charge Cheaper In State College Tuition to Illegal Immigrants

  • Context: News 
  • Thread starter Thread starter chemisttree
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Charge College State
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the proposal for Texas to charge cheaper in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants. Participants explore the implications of this policy on taxpayers, legal residents, and the educational system, as well as the broader social and economic consequences.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants argue that providing education to illegal immigrants can help them improve their lives and contribute positively to society, rather than relying on welfare programs.
  • Others express concern that this policy shifts financial burdens onto taxpayers and legal students, potentially leading to increased tuition for those who are legally enrolled.
  • There are claims that illegal immigrants receiving subsidized education is unjust compared to international students who must navigate a lottery system for work visas.
  • Some participants suggest that investing in immigrants' education could save taxpayers money in the long run, although the validity of this argument is questioned.
  • Several participants emphasize the need for stricter immigration controls and express frustration over perceived injustices in how resources are allocated between legal and illegal residents.
  • Concerns are raised about the broader societal impacts of illegal immigration, including crime and resource allocation in public services.
  • Some participants highlight the humanitarian aspect of the issue, arguing that deporting individuals without addressing the underlying economic conditions in their home countries is problematic.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus; multiple competing views remain regarding the implications of the proposed tuition policy, the fairness of resource distribution, and the broader impacts of illegal immigration.

Contextual Notes

Participants express various assumptions about the economic impact of illegal immigration on public resources, the moral implications of education access, and the effectiveness of current immigration policies. These assumptions are not universally accepted and contribute to the ongoing debate.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals concerned with immigration policy, education funding, social justice, and economic implications of immigration in the United States.

Physics news on Phys.org
Hey, if they're going to come here anyway, we might as well give them a way to better themselves. I'd rather have legions of immigrants coming here to get college educations than coming here to live off welfare programs.

- Warren
 
The question is, what happens after words? These people are coming here illegally, but the important point is that they are staying here. If they were getting an education and then bolting, that would be a bigger problem. But since they are staying, I don't take so much issue with that.

However, its still a big problem because they are taking away money from taxpayers and the like. Sure, the school is making them pay less, but now the school is losing money. They have to pay for teachers, electric bills, etc. When illegal students pay less tuition, more burdon now falls on the school and legal students (who might see a tuition increase). Personally, I would not be happy paying more tuition to support illegal students getting a college degree.
 
I feel sorry for legal citizens from other states who have to pay "out of state tuition". I'D RATHER GIVE THEM THE BREAK! So much for the argument, "They're only here to work... to do the work THAT AMERICANS WON'T DO!"
 
cyrusabdollahi said:
However, its still a big problem because they are taking away money from taxpayers and the like. Sure, the school is making them pay less, but now the school is losing money. They have to pay for teachers, electric bills, etc. When illegal students pay less tuition, more burdon now falls on the school and legal students (who might see a tuition increase). Personally, I would not be happy paying more tuition to support illegal students getting a college degree.

AMEN TO THAT!

SIGNED,

TEXAS TAXPAYER
 
cyrusabdollahi said:
However, its still a big problem because they are taking away money from taxpayers and the like.

Would you rather help subsidize four years of education, or 50+ years of welfare?

I think the crux of this program is the idea that investing a little money in immigrants' education today will save taxpayers a whole hell of a lot more money down the line. The argument sounds plausible, but whether or not it actually holds water has probably yet to be seen.

- Warren
 
Id rather shut down the boarders, which is what should be done. While its not a PC solution, it is the right thing to do.

Im all for helping others, but not at the expense of hurting myself.

When it comes to illegals and welfare, I have no mercy for them. They should be deported. Ill stay quiet if your illegal so long as your working. The instant you stop working your otta here.
 
The laws should apply equally to everybody.

On the one end we have bright international students who have to go on a lottery to get an H1 visa to work in the US legally and on the other hand we have people who break the law by illegally crossing the borders and they get freebees.

No that is not justice, it is grave injustice!
 
Last edited:
chroot said:
Would you rather help subsidize four years of education, or 50+ years of welfare?

I think the crux of this program is the idea that investing a little money in immigrants' education today will save taxpayers a whole hell of a lot more money down the line. The argument sounds plausible, but whether or not it actually holds water has probably yet to be seen.

- Warren

I'd rather subsidize an efficient way to identify and deport them.

I already subsidize their education and welfare. If our politicians have their way I will also be subsidizing their retirement as well...
 
  • #10
cyrusabdollahi said:
Im all for helping others, but not at the expense of hurting myself.

Let's say your taxes go up a buck a year (I assume you're in a quite low tax bracket to begin with) so someone else will get a chance to earn a college degree and make something of him/herself. The help-to-hurt ratio is far over one in this case. Where do you draw the line? Would you give a buck to help a poor family get out of poverty? Is that too much hurt for you to tolerate? What about ten bucks a year? Or fifteen?

(I'm not attacking you, I'm just playing devil's advocate.)

When it comes to illegals and welfare, I have no mercy for them. They should be deported. Ill stay quiet if your illegal so long as your working. The instant you stop working your otta here.

It's not a bad argument, and I understand it. The problem is a greater one than just the US, however. If we just throw these people back over the fence into Mexico, they're going to live in poverty and die young. It's not so much a matter of US vs. Mexico as it is a humanitarian issue. These people have no chance in Mexico. They cannot find work. They cannot feed their children. They didn't ask to be born in a country that cannot find work for its citizens any more than you asked to be born into relative prosperity.

I am generally on your side about welfare, though. If they can manage to feed their kids in Mexico, maybe they should just stay in Mexico. On the other hand, I'm of the opinion that education is one of the wisest investments a person (or a government) can ever make.

- Warren
 
  • #11
MeJennifer said:
On the one end we have bright international students who have to go on a lottery to get an H1 visa to work in the US legally and on the other hand we have people who break the law by illegally crossing the borders and they get freebees.

No that is not justice, it is grave injustice!

That's an excellent point, but it's misguided. The people who get H1 visas are brilliant people -- who already have educations -- who have no trouble finding work in, e.g., India. They feed their families just fine over there, often working for the same companies they'd work for in the US. Offering subsidized state undergraduate education to people who have graduated with 98% marks in engineering from IIT doesn't make any sense.

They just don't get paid as much there, so they can't afford to buy houses made out of solid slabs of marble and pay a staff of ten people to drive their cars and make their food. Boo hoo.

The people crossing the border from Mexico are not geniuses with high-tech educations -- they are people who can't find any work, even cleaning bathrooms, to feed their kids.

- Warren
 
  • #12
But in your hypothetical you need an important distinction. No, I would not give money to help feed illegal imigrants in this country. We already have something to do that, namely international aid. We send their country aid for that reason.

We can help as much as we can with that aid. But its not fair to ask us to now give more money because they are taking over our country. Its not just giving them a simple extra dollar. They are taking up seats in the university, taking up space in hospitals, burdening the police departments, bringing over gangs (like MS-13).

They really need to go. If they want to work, they should have a temp work visa and then be sent back.
 
Last edited:
  • #13
It's not a bad argument, and I understand it. The problem is a greater one than just the US, however. If we just throw these people back over the fence into Mexico, they're going to live in poverty and die young. It's not so much a matter of US vs. Mexico as it is a humanitarian issue. These people have no chance in Mexico. They cannot find work. They cannot feed their children. They didn't ask to be born in a country that cannot find work for its citizens any more than you asked to be born into relative prosperity.

Yes, but I did not ask to pay to feed the entire world either. These people need to stop having kids in their own country, and their country needs to get rid of their corruption and help its own people. I am not going to pay to help others because its own government can't do its job. Case in point, Iraq.

Its harsh because its necessary. If we allow this to happen, when does it stop. Before you know it, we will be paying the entire world money and become broke.
 
  • #14
chroot said:
These people have no chance in Mexico. They cannot find work. They cannot feed their children. They didn't ask to be born in a country that cannot find work for its citizens any more than you asked to be born into relative prosperity.

You couldn't be MORE WRONG! It costs a LOT OF MONEY TO GO TO SCHOOL IN TEXAS, even for residents. That kind of money goes a long way in Mexico!

When they are admited to Texas A&M or UT or Texas State or wherever, the classes are all in english. They have to speak english! Sound like the Mexican underclass to you?

These are NOT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE CUTTING YOUR GRASS -- OR THEIR KIDS!

Their kids are already legal citizens for the most part. THESE ARE CAPABLE PEOPLE, TAKING SAT'S AND PASSING ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS! They are just here illegally! People in Mexico have plenty of opportunity, just not all the benefits and higher salaries that are found in the US.

The richest (or the second-richest) man in the world is a Mexican FCS!
 
  • #15
cyrusabdollahi said:
But in your hypothetical you need an important distinction. No, I would not give money to help feed illegal imigrants in this country. We already have something to do that, namely international aid. We send their country aid for that reason.

An excellent point. Hopefully the aid we send to the governments of countries like Mexico actually makes it all the way to its citizens. I suspect it isn't that efficient a process, though.

They really need to go. If they want to work, they should have a temp work visa and then be sent back.

I'm very much in support of the temporary worker visa program. I think it makes a lot of sense to allow them to live here as long as they're working and "putting in their fair share."

What about giving them temporary student visas? What about sending them back to Mexico as soon as they graduate? What about giving them a break on tuition, since even USD $1,200 a semester -- a trivial amount for the average US family -- is an intolerable financial hardship for the average Mexican family?

- Warren
 
  • #16
cyrusabdollahi said:
Its harsh because its necessary. If we allow this to happen, when does it stop. Before you know it, we will be paying the entire world money and become broke.

We'll become broke by trying to beat them up, too. We've spent over a trillion dollars in the war in Iraq. That's $3,000 for every man, woman, and child in the entire country over the last couple of years. Isn't that a bigger waste of money than educating some Mexican kids?

- Warren
 
  • #17
But what your proposing is to throw money at a problem rather than fix the problem. There will always be mexicans coming to this country and they will be using up our money more and more as time goes on.

The only way to fix the problem is to stop them from entering our boarders.
 
  • #18
chemisttree said:
Their kids are already legal citizens for the most part. THESE ARE CAPABLE PEOPLE, TAKING SAT'S AND PASSING ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS! They are just here illegally!

No reason to shout, chemisttree.

If that's really true, and this program is really just offering cheap tuition to people who once lived in Mexico but are now virtually indistinguishable from from US citizens then sure, it makes no sense. I don't think anyone would see that as sensible.

- Warren
 
  • #19
We can't support a country of people just becasue its government is corrupt.
 
  • #20
cyrusabdollahi said:
The only way to fix the problem is to stop them from entering our boarders.

That would a solution to our problem, it's true. But we could never stop them from entering our borders, so it isn't a realistic solution. No one has ever made a realistic proposal for how we could stop the immigrants from entering the country. It would cost an absolute fortune to really make the border impenetrable -- far more than it would cost to educate some Mexican kids in some el-cheapo US universities. If all you're concerned about is your tax bill, blockading the border isn't a good plan, either.

- Warren
 
  • #21
cyrusabdollahi said:
The only way to fix the problem is to stop them from entering our boarders.
Exactly right!

We do not need a 100% secure border.
But what we need is a political willingness to actually do something about the security of our borders. But unfortunately too many voters have this "just close one eye, since they are poor and have no job" attitude. With that attitude we might as well welcome half of the African continent.
 
Last edited:
  • #22
MeJennifer said:
Exactly right!

Again, this "solution" is just sophistry. We can't stop them, at least not without spending an ungodly amount of taxpayer money.

- Warren
 
  • #23
You know, some illegals actually sued a farmer because they tried to enter the country illegally and the farmer did not have water fountains and some died of dehydration!
 
  • #24
The boarders needs to have the US national guard protecting it with M-16s. Now this may sound very harsh, but if you cross, there should be the possibility of you getting shot at or put in a detainment camp. This is a national boarder were talking about. Not just walking across the street to a friends house.

Then you take all of them in the detainment camp and ship them to a mexican jail and let mexico deal with it.
 
  • #25
cyrusabdollahi said:
But what your proposing is to throw money at a problem rather than fix the problem. There will always be mexicans coming to this country and they will be using up our money more and more as time goes on.

The only way to fix the problem is to stop them from entering our boarders.
Our tight borders are the reason that the immigrant population is booming. By making it more difficult for illegals to go home, visit their families, and return, the US gov't is making it more attractive for them to move here, get some bogus IDs, blend in and stay. The border is still relatively porous in places, but the tighter it gets, the longer illegal immigrants will stay. This situation is just what some industries want, including meat-packing plants, chicken raising operations, etc - a hard-working, cheap labor force that will not protest bad working conditions, long hours, etc, because they need the jobs, and because they know that they can easily be ratted out if they complain. These companies know that they're hiring illegals, and they like it that way.
 
  • #26
Our system has no check and balances. Tell me why illegal immigrants can get social security cards, drivers licenses, credit cards and bank accounts?
 
  • #27
chroot said:
No reason to shout, chemisttree.
- Warren

My bad. (chiseling off Caps Lock key)
 
  • #28
turbo-1 said:
Our tight borders are the reason that the immigrant population is booming. By making it more difficult for illegals to go home, visit their families, and return, the US gov't is making it more attractive for them to move here, get some bogus IDs, blend in and stay. The border is still relatively porous in places, but the tighter it gets, the longer illegal immigrants will stay. This situation is just what some industries want, including meat-packing plants, chicken raising operations, etc - a hard-working, cheap labor force that will not protest bad working conditions, long hours, etc, because they need the jobs, and because they know that they can easily be ratted out if they complain. These companies know that they're hiring illegals, and they like it that way.

How can the population be booming if less are entering our boarders. That means the influx has be stopped (which it should). Now the job of the government should be to pass laws that fines the hell out of anyone hiring illegals. They should be flushed right back out of the country on a case by case basis.
 
  • #29
cyrusabdollahi said:
The boarders needs to have the US national guard protecting it with M-16s.

How much will this solution cost? Thousands and thousands of miles of border, at least four or five guards per shift per mile... $100k total salary including overhead... that comes out to $3.6 billion dollars a year by my estimate. And it might not even work (border guards are susceptible to bribes, too).

And you're concerned about the gov't paying a few thousand dollars a year for a small number of students to go to college?

What's amazing to me is that people pay taxes to help other people's kids go to school all the time, without any hesitation. I paid $35k in federal and state taxes last year, and have no kids. I'm not that unusual. So people have no problem paying for other peoples' kids' education, so long as those kids were born on the north side of a fence erected on a boundary decided by a land purchase made hundreds of years ago.

If those people were born on the south side of that fence, though, whoa! Send those thieving bastards back to the hole where they came from!

- Warren
 
Last edited:
  • #30
MeJennifer said:
Our system has no check and balances. Tell me why illegal immigrants can get social security cards, drivers licenses, credit cards and bank accounts?

Because they want decent jobs and decent lives. Some people think they're entitled to such things just by being human. Other people get pretty caught up in the whole fence deal.

- Warren
 

Similar threads

News Cooper Union Protest: Students Fight for Free Tuition
  • · Replies 76 ·
3
Replies
76
Views
11K
News How Does Immigration Influence the US Economy?
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
4K
News Illegal immigrant ordinances unconstitutional
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
News Illegal immigration really bad in Europe
  • · Replies 59 ·
2
Replies
59
Views
12K
News Does 'pack journalism' shape the science news we read?
  • · Replies 15 ·
Replies
15
Views
3K
News Should the U.S. Government Control College and University Accreditation?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
4K
News Is Recording Police Interactions a Felony?
  • · Replies 116 ·
4
Replies
116
Views
22K
Best path for studying physics and computer science
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
News US suspends Habeas Corpus for all noncitizens
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
News Off-topic discussion from Why talk about 1967 borders?
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
4K