Arizona taxpayers spend up to $1.2 billion annually

[lostinblue 1,989]

Not to take away the sacrifice of the arizonia teachers make in the article posted below Maybe here is a reason why the school system is in dire shape.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/84115

Arizona taxpayers spend up to $1.2 billion annually to educate children of illegal immigrants

Nicole Beyer, Tribune

February 14, 2007 - 8:27PM

Children chat in Spanish between classes at Mesa’s Lindbergh Elementary School, and signs are posted in English and Spanish so parents can navigate the campus.

Fewer than 10 percent of Lindbergh students were Hispanic in 1980. Today, the figure has swelled to more than 75 percent.

But Jennifer Kill, a sixth-grade teacher at the school, said she has never asked if any of these students are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants. Her job is to teach children, not to guard the border.

“As a teacher, you get the students that come to your door,” Kill said. “You don’t concern yourself with where they’re from, what they look like.”

People who do track immigration trends estimate that 125,000 to 145,000 children of illegal immigrants attend public elementary and secondary schools in Arizona.

That figure comes from the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., which is quick to point out that about half of these students are likely U.S. citizens born in this country.

The Pew estimate nearly equals the enrollment of the Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler unified school districts combined.

More than one in nine Arizona students is an illegal immigrant or the child of an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

To educate these children, school finance experts in Arizona suggest taxpayers will spend as much as $1.2 billion this year alone.

TEACHERS IN THE MIDDLE

Despite the Pew estimate, nobody knows for sure how many children of illegal immigrants attend Arizona schools.

That’s because schools such as Lindbergh aren’t allowed to ask. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling states that all children in the United States have a constitutional right to a public education regardless of their immigration status or the status of their parents.

When children enroll in public school, their parents must show proof of residency but not a Social Security number. Many families bring Mexican birth certificates and transcripts from Mexican schools.

New students who speak a language other than English at home are then tested for English proficiency.

On a recent day at Lindbergh, all 11 students who were tested for language proficiency qualified for additional state funding as “English language learners.”

Kill said she’s aware of Arizona’s debate over illegal immigration, but she refuses to speculate about anybody’s immigration status in her classroom.

“Do I think there are illegals taking time away?” she said. “Not at all. It never crosses my mind.”

She said more than half of her 30 students speak Spanish or a dialect close to Spanish, and she does “whatever it takes” to help these students succeed.

Billion-dollar debate

Depending on whom you ask, it costs between $7,720 and $8,500 each year to educate one Arizona child in the public school system.

Those numbers include federal, state and local funding for everything from teacher salaries, transportation, school nurses, meals, tutoring, special education, administration and school construction and maintenance.

The estimate also includes money the state sets aside each year for special English instruction for students not yet fluent.

All this spending infuriates opponents of illegal immigration.

“We have no obligation whatsoever to the illegal immigrant that’s here,” said Albert Rodriguez, a Hispanic U.S. citizen from Scottsdale.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne disagrees. He says all children in this country should be educated regardless of how they got here.

“We’re not going to leave these kids out in the street and not educate them,” Horne said. “If they’re here, they have to be educated.”

But some critics say Horne and state lawmakers don’t go far enough to educate these children.

Tim Hogan, an attorney with the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said the true cost of educating English learners is much more than the state allocates.

“The state needs to help kids overcome language barriers that impede them from equal participation in public schools,” said Hogan, who represents a Nogales family in a 15-year-old lawsuit that accuses the state of shortchanging English learners.

A federal judge sided with Hogan in 2000, and lawmakers responded by doubling the English immersion funding for each qualified student to $355 per year.

With 132,000 English learners in Arizona, that comes to nearly $47 million annually. But that’s still not enough, according to the judge.

“The court has said, ‘We think that’s too little,’ and we’re litigating that,” Horne said.

COLLEGE ROADBLOCK

Not all students designated as English learners are children of illegal immigrants.

Some English learners are the children of legal residents. Conversely, some fluent English speakers are illegal immigrants. Hogan’s case does not concern itself with how these numbers break down.

Jesus, a 16-year-old high school junior who declined to give his surname, acknowledges that he lacks proper documentation.

“When I got here, I started taking some English classes because I didn’t know like, anything at all,” said Jesus, who moved from Mexico in 2002.

When Jesus signed up for classes, he said he brought his Mexican birth certificate and his transcripts.

“I’m a good student,” said Jesus, who said he had the equivalent of an “A” average when he moved to Arizona.

Gabriela, a 17-year-old illegal immigrant who moved to the United States with her family when she was 2, said most illegal immigrants pay taxes and should be welcome at public schools.

“One way or another, we should be getting what we pay for,” she said.

Students like Jesus and Gabriela said they want to succeed in the U.S., and there are teachers trying to help them.

“That’s the reason we’re here,” Kill said. “So my students can graduate and they can get jobs and be productive.”

But instead of being excited for their high school graduations, Jesus and Gabriela said they are nervous.

They said they can’t afford to pay out-of-state tuition after Proposition 300 passed, and they don’t want to go back to Mexico.

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

“I see a lot of people getting their applications in,” Gabriela said. “I try to look at it and there it is … it’s like, where is your Social Security number? It’s like a slap in the face.”

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

But Rodriguez, who founded an illegal immigration watchdog group in May called You Don’t Speak for Me, offers a solution.

“There is a place to go,” he said. “Get his parents to take him back where he came from.”

Gabriela’s father said he has no regrets for bringing his family to Arizona. He said in Mexico, he only made it through the third grade.

Now he wants his family members to become U.S. citizens.

“From the very start you struggle if you decide to come here without a visa,” he said.

CITIZENSHIP WITH DIPLOMAS?

Horne has a plan that would reward high school graduates with citizenship. All they would have to do is pass a test.

“If there’s a standardized test that confirms it, that the student does well and learned, I would have no objection to that,” Horne said.

But Rodriguez said Horne’s proposal would create an incentive for immigrants to break the law while there are other people waiting in line to become citizens.

“They’re doing it the right way,” Rodriguez said. “Why should these people step in the front of the line and break another

rule?”

The bottom line, Horne said, is that illegal immigration is the parents’ fault — not the children’s fault.

“Let’s fight the Supreme Court again,” Rodriguez said. “And let’s see what happens.”

[Ban Hammer 13,369]

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

“I see a lot of people getting their applications in,” Gabriela said. “I try to look at it and there it is … it’s like, where is your Social Security number? It’s like a slap in the face.”

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

a slap in the face is this nut thinking she is equal or better than an american citizen when it comes to being considered for higher education. the forces of arrogance and entitlement are strong with this one.

[luckytxn 2,264]

I like how the one was lamenting how he had to struggle when he made the decision to come here illegally. Boo Hoo.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

“I see a lot of people getting their applications in,” Gabriela said. “I try to look at it and there it is … it’s like, where is your Social Security number? It’s like a slap in the face.”

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

a slap in the face is this nut thinking she is equal or better than an american citizen when it comes to being considered for higher education. the forces of arrogance and entitlement are strong with this one.

Ain't that the truth. Case in point - my friends of my wife's migrated to the US last year - legally via the DV program. The oldest daughter will start college this fall after having graduated high school in the top 1%. Now, she doesn't qualify for in-state tuition this semester because the state says that she hasn't been a resident in FL fir the required 12 month period. I don't see them getting onto some soapbox even though they probably would have a stronger argument seeing that the only thing they failed to do right away is get a state ID for the girl - which is what the state says establishes in-state residency. For them illegal immigrants to stand there and request - no scratch that - demand better treatment than what US citizens and lawful immigrants receive is just preposterous.

[justashooter 430]

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

[Arabella 4]

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

I am a high school guidance counselor in Florida and one of my graduating seniors had to go back to Mexico to attend a university after she graduated from high school because she was an illegal immigrant and therefore did not have a social security number to register in college. She qualified for a Florida Bright Futures scholarship to attend a public university, but could not receive it without a SS# and resident status.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

I am a high school guidance counselor in Florida and one of my graduating seniors had to go back to Mexico to attend a university after she graduated from high school because she was an illegal immigrant and therefore did not have a social security number to register in college. She qualified for a Florida Bright Futures scholarship to attend a public university, but could not receive it without a SS# and resident status.

Good. This is how it's supposed to work.

[HAL 9000 96]

Wow. $1.2B for up to 150K kids!!!

Clearly they're not spending enough.

[Ban Hammer 13,369]

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

I am a high school guidance counselor in Florida and one of my graduating seniors had to go back to Mexico to attend a university after she graduated from high school because she was an illegal immigrant and therefore did not have a social security number to register in college. She qualified for a Florida Bright Futures scholarship to attend a public university, but could not receive it without a SS# and resident status.

Good. This is how it's supposed to work.

exactly

[spookyturtle 9,466]

If there's one thing worse than an illegal, it's an educated illegal.

[Ban Hammer 13,369]

If there's one thing worse than an illegal, it's an educated illegal.

from our tax dollars.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

If there's one thing worse than an illegal, it's an educated illegal.

from our tax dollars.

Very true. And the more educated, the more they learn to play the system.

[sjr09 155]

Not to take away the sacrifice of the arizonia teachers make in the article posted below Maybe here is a reason why the school system is in dire shape.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/84115

Arizona taxpayers spend up to $1.2 billion annually to educate children of illegal immigrants

Nicole Beyer, Tribune

February 14, 2007 - 8:27PM

Children chat in Spanish between classes at Mesa’s Lindbergh Elementary School, and signs are posted in English and Spanish so parents can navigate the campus.

Fewer than 10 percent of Lindbergh students were Hispanic in 1980. Today, the figure has swelled to more than 75 percent.

But Jennifer Kill, a sixth-grade teacher at the school, said she has never asked if any of these students are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants. Her job is to teach children, not to guard the border.

“As a teacher, you get the students that come to your door,” Kill said. “You don’t concern yourself with where they’re from, what they look like.”

People who do track immigration trends estimate that 125,000 to 145,000 children of illegal immigrants attend public elementary and secondary schools in Arizona.

That figure comes from the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., which is quick to point out that about half of these students are likely U.S. citizens born in this country.

The Pew estimate nearly equals the enrollment of the Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler unified school districts combined.

More than one in nine Arizona students is an illegal immigrant or the child of an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

To educate these children, school finance experts in Arizona suggest taxpayers will spend as much as $1.2 billion this year alone.

TEACHERS IN THE MIDDLE

Despite the Pew estimate, nobody knows for sure how many children of illegal immigrants attend Arizona schools.

That’s because schools such as Lindbergh aren’t allowed to ask. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling states that all children in the United States have a constitutional right to a public education regardless of their immigration status or the status of their parents.

When children enroll in public school, their parents must show proof of residency but not a Social Security number. Many families bring Mexican birth certificates and transcripts from Mexican schools.

New students who speak a language other than English at home are then tested for English proficiency.

On a recent day at Lindbergh, all 11 students who were tested for language proficiency qualified for additional state funding as “English language learners.”

Kill said she’s aware of Arizona’s debate over illegal immigration, but she refuses to speculate about anybody’s immigration status in her classroom.

“Do I think there are illegals taking time away?” she said. “Not at all. It never crosses my mind.”

She said more than half of her 30 students speak Spanish or a dialect close to Spanish, and she does “whatever it takes” to help these students succeed.

Billion-dollar debate

Depending on whom you ask, it costs between $7,720 and $8,500 each year to educate one Arizona child in the public school system.

Those numbers include federal, state and local funding for everything from teacher salaries, transportation, school nurses, meals, tutoring, special education, administration and school construction and maintenance.

The estimate also includes money the state sets aside each year for special English instruction for students not yet fluent.

All this spending infuriates opponents of illegal immigration.

“We have no obligation whatsoever to the illegal immigrant that’s here,” said Albert Rodriguez, a Hispanic U.S. citizen from Scottsdale.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne disagrees. He says all children in this country should be educated regardless of how they got here.

“We’re not going to leave these kids out in the street and not educate them,” Horne said. “If they’re here, they have to be educated.”

But some critics say Horne and state lawmakers don’t go far enough to educate these children.

Tim Hogan, an attorney with the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said the true cost of educating English learners is much more than the state allocates.

“The state needs to help kids overcome language barriers that impede them from equal participation in public schools,” said Hogan, who represents a Nogales family in a 15-year-old lawsuit that accuses the state of shortchanging English learners.

A federal judge sided with Hogan in 2000, and lawmakers responded by doubling the English immersion funding for each qualified student to $355 per year.

With 132,000 English learners in Arizona, that comes to nearly $47 million annually. But that’s still not enough, according to the judge.

“The court has said, ‘We think that’s too little,’ and we’re litigating that,” Horne said.

COLLEGE ROADBLOCK

Not all students designated as English learners are children of illegal immigrants.

Some English learners are the children of legal residents. Conversely, some fluent English speakers are illegal immigrants. Hogan’s case does not concern itself with how these numbers break down.

Jesus, a 16-year-old high school junior who declined to give his surname, acknowledges that he lacks proper documentation.

“When I got here, I started taking some English classes because I didn’t know like, anything at all,” said Jesus, who moved from Mexico in 2002.

When Jesus signed up for classes, he said he brought his Mexican birth certificate and his transcripts.

“I’m a good student,” said Jesus, who said he had the equivalent of an “A” average when he moved to Arizona.

Gabriela, a 17-year-old illegal immigrant who moved to the United States with her family when she was 2, said most illegal immigrants pay taxes and should be welcome at public schools.

“One way or another, we should be getting what we pay for,” she said.

Students like Jesus and Gabriela said they want to succeed in the U.S., and there are teachers trying to help them.

“That’s the reason we’re here,” Kill said. “So my students can graduate and they can get jobs and be productive.”

But instead of being excited for their high school graduations, Jesus and Gabriela said they are nervous.

They said they can’t afford to pay out-of-state tuition after Proposition 300 passed, and they don’t want to go back to Mexico.

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

“I see a lot of people getting their applications in,” Gabriela said. “I try to look at it and there it is … it’s like, where is your Social Security number? It’s like a slap in the face.”

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

But Rodriguez, who founded an illegal immigration watchdog group in May called You Don’t Speak for Me, offers a solution.

“There is a place to go,” he said. “Get his parents to take him back where he came from.”

Gabriela’s father said he has no regrets for bringing his family to Arizona. He said in Mexico, he only made it through the third grade.

Now he wants his family members to become U.S. citizens.

“From the very start you struggle if you decide to come here without a visa,” he said.

CITIZENSHIP WITH DIPLOMAS?

Horne has a plan that would reward high school graduates with citizenship. All they would have to do is pass a test.

“If there’s a standardized test that confirms it, that the student does well and learned, I would have no objection to that,” Horne said.

But Rodriguez said Horne’s proposal would create an incentive for immigrants to break the law while there are other people waiting in line to become citizens.

“They’re doing it the right way,” Rodriguez said. “Why should these people step in the front of the line and break another

rule?”

The bottom line, Horne said, is that illegal immigration is the parents’ fault — not the children’s fault.

“Let’s fight the Supreme Court again,” Rodriguez said. “And let’s see what happens.”

You can thank our local and federal government, who has no balls to enforce the laws that are already in-place.

DHS Allowing Illegal Aliens to Remain in Workforce; DOL Helping Them Improve Working Conditions

Last week, two media reports revealed that the Obama Administration is (1) failing to deport illegal workers, and (2) at the same time, working to entrench illegal aliens as part of the U.S. labor force by having the U.S. Department of Labor work with the Mexican government "to protect Mexican workers regardless of their legal status." (The Sacramento Bee, September 1, 2009).

Last week, the impact of Homeland Security's new policy on worksite enforcement became readily apparent when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) refused to say whether it would deport 1,500 factory workers who had been fired "because they were unable to prove their immigration status or fix problems with their employment records." (Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2009). Two months ago, American Apparel Inc. — a Los Angeles clothing manufacturer and retailer well-known for its support for amnesty — announced that an ICE inspection had found that about 1,600 of its workers appeared to be illegal. According to the Los Angeles Times, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice "declined to speculate on what would happen to illegal workers once they left a company." Kice told the Times: "The focus is on the employer…on ensuring that businesses employ a legal workforce. Then again, if someone is in this country in violation of immigration laws, they are subject to enforcement action." (Id.).

Kice's refusal to confirm that ICE would deport any illegal aliens working at American Apparel Inc. suggests that the Obama Administration is willing to allow illegal aliens discovered in the course of a worksite enforcement operation to re-enter the workforce. This is especially troubling in light of a report released last week by The Sacramento Bee indicating that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is working with "Mexican consulates across the United States as part of a binational campaign, endorsed by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, to protect Mexican workers regardless of their legal status." (The Sacramento Bee, September 1, 2009). According to The Bee, "tate and federal labor officials joined immigrant rights advocates and union representatives" last Monday at Sacramento's Mexican Consulate "to address work-related injuries, sexual harassment, salary issues and working conditions." (Id.).

Last week's events, however, are only the latest in a series indicating that the Obama Administration is not serious about enforcing America's immigration laws. In March, it was revealed that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano had not only ordered the release of 27 illegal aliens who had been arrested as part of an ICE worksite enforcement investigation in Bellingham, Washington, but that DHS has also given them work authorization. (See FAIR's Legislative Update, April 6, 2009). Furthermore, on March 29, an anonymous DHS official told The Washington Post that Napolitano had delayed a series of worksite enforcement operations. (The Washington Post, March 29, 2009).

The administration's refusal to enforce immigration law against illegal alien workers found as the result of ICE worksite enforcement operations may be part of an enforcement strategy that focuses on the identification and removal of "criminal" aliens only. In fact, the administration has made announcements concerning the Secure Communities program (See FAIR's Legislative Update, May 26, 2009); the 287(g) program (See FAIR's Legislative Update, July 13, 2009); and the Fugitive Operations program (See FAIR's Legislative Update, August 24, 2009) indicating that they intend to abandon immigration enforcement in all but the most serious criminal cases.

[zqt3344 21]

It just shows you only in America can this utter freaking nonsense be allowed to even be thought of and sadly carried out at times! Any other country having illegals in it or protesting in streets is going to expunge them immediately and deadly. Just a total mess our Federal Government has done to us all in the USA. And they think they can fix our economy with all these czars of Ovomit and his fiscal stimulus boondooggle and now this health care nonsense! We are screwed.

Not to take away the sacrifice of the arizonia teachers make in the article posted below Maybe here is a reason why the school system is in dire shape.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/84115

Arizona taxpayers spend up to $1.2 billion annually to educate children of illegal immigrants

Nicole Beyer, Tribune

February 14, 2007 - 8:27PM

Children chat in Spanish between classes at Mesa’s Lindbergh Elementary School, and signs are posted in English and Spanish so parents can navigate the campus.

Fewer than 10 percent of Lindbergh students were Hispanic in 1980. Today, the figure has swelled to more than 75 percent.

But Jennifer Kill, a sixth-grade teacher at the school, said she has never asked if any of these students are illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants. Her job is to teach children, not to guard the border.

“As a teacher, you get the students that come to your door,” Kill said. “You don’t concern yourself with where they’re from, what they look like.”

People who do track immigration trends estimate that 125,000 to 145,000 children of illegal immigrants attend public elementary and secondary schools in Arizona.

That figure comes from the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., which is quick to point out that about half of these students are likely U.S. citizens born in this country.

The Pew estimate nearly equals the enrollment of the Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler unified school districts combined.

More than one in nine Arizona students is an illegal immigrant or the child of an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

To educate these children, school finance experts in Arizona suggest taxpayers will spend as much as $1.2 billion this year alone.

TEACHERS IN THE MIDDLE

Despite the Pew estimate, nobody knows for sure how many children of illegal immigrants attend Arizona schools.

That’s because schools such as Lindbergh aren’t allowed to ask. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling states that all children in the United States have a constitutional right to a public education regardless of their immigration status or the status of their parents.

When children enroll in public school, their parents must show proof of residency but not a Social Security number. Many families bring Mexican birth certificates and transcripts from Mexican schools.

New students who speak a language other than English at home are then tested for English proficiency.

On a recent day at Lindbergh, all 11 students who were tested for language proficiency qualified for additional state funding as “English language learners.”

Kill said she’s aware of Arizona’s debate over illegal immigration, but she refuses to speculate about anybody’s immigration status in her classroom.

“Do I think there are illegals taking time away?” she said. “Not at all. It never crosses my mind.”

She said more than half of her 30 students speak Spanish or a dialect close to Spanish, and she does “whatever it takes” to help these students succeed.

Billion-dollar debate

Depending on whom you ask, it costs between $7,720 and $8,500 each year to educate one Arizona child in the public school system.

Those numbers include federal, state and local funding for everything from teacher salaries, transportation, school nurses, meals, tutoring, special education, administration and school construction and maintenance.

The estimate also includes money the state sets aside each year for special English instruction for students not yet fluent.

All this spending infuriates opponents of illegal immigration.

“We have no obligation whatsoever to the illegal immigrant that’s here,” said Albert Rodriguez, a Hispanic U.S. citizen from Scottsdale.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne disagrees. He says all children in this country should be educated regardless of how they got here.

“We’re not going to leave these kids out in the street and not educate them,” Horne said. “If they’re here, they have to be educated.”

But some critics say Horne and state lawmakers don’t go far enough to educate these children.

Tim Hogan, an attorney with the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said the true cost of educating English learners is much more than the state allocates.

“The state needs to help kids overcome language barriers that impede them from equal participation in public schools,” said Hogan, who represents a Nogales family in a 15-year-old lawsuit that accuses the state of shortchanging English learners.

A federal judge sided with Hogan in 2000, and lawmakers responded by doubling the English immersion funding for each qualified student to $355 per year.

With 132,000 English learners in Arizona, that comes to nearly $47 million annually. But that’s still not enough, according to the judge.

“The court has said, ‘We think that’s too little,’ and we’re litigating that,” Horne said.

COLLEGE ROADBLOCK

Not all students designated as English learners are children of illegal immigrants.

Some English learners are the children of legal residents. Conversely, some fluent English speakers are illegal immigrants. Hogan’s case does not concern itself with how these numbers break down.

Jesus, a 16-year-old high school junior who declined to give his surname, acknowledges that he lacks proper documentation.

“When I got here, I started taking some English classes because I didn’t know like, anything at all,” said Jesus, who moved from Mexico in 2002.

When Jesus signed up for classes, he said he brought his Mexican birth certificate and his transcripts.

“I’m a good student,” said Jesus, who said he had the equivalent of an “A” average when he moved to Arizona.

Gabriela, a 17-year-old illegal immigrant who moved to the United States with her family when she was 2, said most illegal immigrants pay taxes and should be welcome at public schools.

“One way or another, we should be getting what we pay for,” she said.

Students like Jesus and Gabriela said they want to succeed in the U.S., and there are teachers trying to help them.

“That’s the reason we’re here,” Kill said. “So my students can graduate and they can get jobs and be productive.”

But instead of being excited for their high school graduations, Jesus and Gabriela said they are nervous.

They said they can’t afford to pay out-of-state tuition after Proposition 300 passed, and they don’t want to go back to Mexico.

Prop. 300, which voters approved in 2006, requires state colleges and universities to check Social Security numbers and charge out-of-state tuition for applicants without proper documentation.

“I see a lot of people getting their applications in,” Gabriela said. “I try to look at it and there it is … it’s like, where is your Social Security number? It’s like a slap in the face.”

Jesus called the citizenship requirement unfair.

“I’m as good as American citizens,” he said. “I’m even smarter than some of them.”

But Rodriguez, who founded an illegal immigration watchdog group in May called You Don’t Speak for Me, offers a solution.

“There is a place to go,” he said. “Get his parents to take him back where he came from.”

Gabriela’s father said he has no regrets for bringing his family to Arizona. He said in Mexico, he only made it through the third grade.

Now he wants his family members to become U.S. citizens.

“From the very start you struggle if you decide to come here without a visa,” he said.

CITIZENSHIP WITH DIPLOMAS?

Horne has a plan that would reward high school graduates with citizenship. All they would have to do is pass a test.

“If there’s a standardized test that confirms it, that the student does well and learned, I would have no objection to that,” Horne said.

But Rodriguez said Horne’s proposal would create an incentive for immigrants to break the law while there are other people waiting in line to become citizens.

“They’re doing it the right way,” Rodriguez said. “Why should these people step in the front of the line and break another

rule?”

The bottom line, Horne said, is that illegal immigration is the parents’ fault — not the children’s fault.

“Let’s fight the Supreme Court again,” Rodriguez said. “And let’s see what happens.”

[Heracles 417]

This is disgraceful. I hope non of the federal tax I pay is going to this sort of idiocy.

We have American kids (black, white and even Hispanic) that are in desperate need of good quality schools and teachers yet one state alone is spending over a billion to educate the kids of foreign nationals who are not even permitted to be here.