Preserve student grants for citizens, legal residents
The proposal to expand eligibility for Washington's student-needs grants to people who are not citizens or legal residents should be abandoned. Given the difficult economy, those resources should be preserved for people who, upon graduation, can gain legal employment.
Seattle Times editorial
THIS is not the right time for Washington state to expand eligibility for student-needs grants to people who are not in the United States legally.
The difficult economy facing our state and nation dictates student-needs grants must be preserved for U.S. citizens and legal residents who can gain legal employment. A person with a college degree but no legal residency or citizenship will have a harder time. This proposal in the Legislature should be abandoned.
We are torn about this recommendation.
Over the years, this page has advocated passionately to expand opportunities for young people brought to this country as children — through no fault of their own — by parents who broke our nation's immigration laws. We have railed repeatedly against broken federal immigration policy and lack of enforcement that have helped to create an underground market that draws people to cross the border illegally.
We successfully supported a 2003 change in the law to permit the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at Washington's public colleges and universities. We urge incessantly for passage of the federal DREAM Act, which would give young people with good records, attending college or entering the military, a path to legal residency and citizenship.
Those values or positions haven't changed. And if times were different, we might support this proposal in hopes of the DREAM Act eventually passing.
However, during these difficult times, priorities must be set and lines must be drawn. It makes no sense to permit people who will have a hard time finding legal employment to compete for a limited pool of state needs grants with citizens and legal residents who can work legally.
