New Jersey Opening Door To Illegal Aliens

Once again, the media distorts an immigration related issue. Here, New Jersey is contemplating extending driving privileges to illegal aliens, but the Bergen Record calls them migrants or undocumented immigrants. That's just the start, as the meat and bones of the article should raise hackles over what rights and privileges are being considered for individuals who entered the US illegally:

The governor's immigration advisory panel this week is expected to consider recommendations that the state allow undocumented immigrants to drive with a special "driver privilege card" and to attend college at in-state tuition rates, two Hispanic leaders say.

The recommendations are among several from subcommittees of Governor Corzine's Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigrant Policy, which will meet Tuesday in New Brunswick. The Hispanic leaders, who are not panel members, said that New Jersey Public Advocate Ron Chen told them at a meeting last month that the recommendations would be included in the panel's report to Corzine.

The "driving privilege card" would allow undocumented immigrants, who are forbidden from obtaining driving licenses in New Jersey, to drive legally. But it would not have the same identification function of a standard driver's license. Many undocumented immigrant students forgo higher education, which often requires them to pay higher, out-of-state tuition.

"Those are the big issues, as far as many leaders of ethnic communities are concerned," said Daniel Santo-Pietro, executive director of the Hispanic Directors Association in New Brunswick, an umbrella group. Santo-Pietro says he has been in regular contact with Chen's staff and with panel members. Laureana Organ of Montvale, who attended the meeting with Chen as a representative of the Dominican American Council, confirmed Santo-Pietro's account of the meeting.

Why exactly is the state suddenly concerned with extending in-state tuition rates to non-citizens who entered the US illegally?

If these proposals are adopted, New Jersey would be treating illegal aliens better than the citizens of other US states. Out of state tuition is nearly $10,000 a year more than in-state tuition. If Trenton agrees to this, they'll be subsidizing illegal aliens to the tune of $10,000 per year who seek education at Rutgers. Why would any legal resident of another state want to go to Rutgers knowing that if they were an illegal alien that they'd be paying the in-state rate? They wouldn't, or they'd try to claim that they too are illegal aliens in order to pay the in-state rate.

This is also a spectacularly insane way to spend the state's money as a subsidy for illegal aliens.

Then, there's the whole issue of drivers' licenses. Terrorists can and have gamed the system to obtain drivers' licenses, which are gateway documents and enable the holder to obtain other documents - essentially establishing new identities.

Illegal aliens are in the country illegally and states should not be going out of their way to extend them still more rights and privileges at a time when these states can ill afford to pay for services to lawful taxpayers.