immigration

I hope you read Graig's excellent analysis of how undocumented young people enrolled in community colleges actually subsidize NC citizens who are students. Of course, the lunatic fringe on the right doesn't care. They're too busy lying to let a little thing like reality get in the way of their hate.

And just in case you thought that's an isolated issue, consider this story about a woman in jail in Charlotte who has been denied the opportunity to breastfeed her two-month old child.

A recent policy change by the North Carolina Community College System is stirring up all kinds of consternation, and our friends at the Pope Civitas Institute are in the middle of it.

Earlier this month, the NCCCS lawyer (David Sullivan) issued a policy memo to the state's 57 community colleges directing them to admit undocumented individuals. Previously, about a third of the state's community colleges had policies that denied admission to undocumented individuals. About a third more had no formal policy on the issue, but had practices that effectively barred undocumented individuals from attending.

As an educator, I work with the children of undocumented immigrants every day. They are top performers in high schools across the state, and they have a lot to offer to their new home if only we would let them.

See, when kids are in school they learn more than the curriculum. They learn the American Dream. Every day they hear "If you work hard and get your education, you can be whatever you want to be." Except that for these kids, the rug gets pulled out from under them as soon as they graduate from high school.

Morally, I think it's anti-American to pitch the American Dream to children of immigrants and then withhold education and opportunity from them. Economically, we need these students fully participating in our workforce to sustain our economic strength in the 21st century.

Read more below the fold...

I offer this not as a solution to anything, but simply to humanize the issue. It is about my friend, whom I will call Alex.

Alex is the son of a middle-class Mexican family that couldn't keep it together in their home state south of our border. With too many children to feed, the father entered the US illegally 20 years ago. Ten years ago, when Alex was 18, he followed his father to America legally, on a work visa. When his visa expired, he chose to stay here illegally. When he tells the story, it's clear it was a hard decision. Had Alex returned to Mexico, he would have lost his job working at a cement factory. His father, who was injured and disabled at the same factory five years earlier, returned to Mexico and is no longer able to work. Alex is the sole source of income for his parents.

... oh, by the way, we're deporting your wife while you're away.

That's what the government is telling Navy helicopter repairman Eduardo Gonzalez might happen while he is in Iraq. Worse? Eduardo, Jr., Gonzalez's son, is a citizen. Nobody knows what will happen to him if his non-citizen mother is deported while Daddy is getting shot at in Iraq.

More reasons to get pissed off, and a modest proposal, below the fold.

I expect to hear indignant denials, from those who say they only object to the immigrants "illegal" status. Right. This doesn't just exist in Colorado, it's nationwide in the anti-immigrant sentiment.

-RP couldn't fix the link.

It seems like every time the UFCW organizing drive at Smithfield gains traction, Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons magically show up to terrorize the company's immigrant workers:

Federal immigration officials conducted a raid Wednesday -- the second this year -- at Smithfield Foods' giant pork slaughterhouse in Bladen County.

It's China. It now appears that immigration opponents are no longer focusing their energies on Manuel, Jesus, etc. as the face of immigration. Now the biggest threat according to them are the Chinese.