Representative George Cleveland (R – Onslow) has introduced HB 11, a bill that would ban undocumented immigrants from North Carolina’s public universities and community colleges. The NC DREAM Team is asking for opponents of this bill to call Speaker Thom Tillis (R – Mecklenburg) and urge him to prevent the bill from making it to the House floor (call 919-733-3451).
Yesterday a member of the NC DREAM Team sent an e-mail expressing their disappointment in the legislation. “It is saddening that one of our state’s representatives would go out of their way to deny a segment of our state’s population the right to educate and better themselves,” said Ian Smith-Overman, the member who sent the e-mail. “I believe your decision to sponsor this bill is short-sighted at best and vindictive at its worst.”
Rep. Cleveland responded within five hours. “I find it revolting that an American thinks that we should financially support people that cannot legally work in this country through taxpayer subsidized education,” he said. “If you feel so strongly about this issue find an illegal and pay for their education at a private university.”
The response from Rep. Cleveland demonstrates that he is not aware that the North Carolina Department of Revenue collects income tax from undocumented immigrants using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, which have been issued by the Internal Revenue Service since 1996. The NC DREAM Team believes that undocumented immigrants not only have a right to attend public post-secondary education in North Carolina, but should also only pay in-state tuition as tax-paying state residents.
While the North Carolina economy depends heavily on immigrant labor, particularly in the agriculture and meat-processing industries, the state has continued to march toward policies that harass the communities working in those industries or prohibit their economic advancement through education. In the past ten years, agreements between immigration officials and local police departments that expand police power such as 287(g) and Secure Communities have continued to proliferate across the state; drivers’ licenses are no longer issued to immigrants without visas; and undocumented youth who most often had no say in their migration to North Carolina as minors are forced to pay out-of-state tuition and register last in community colleges.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DreamACTivist and Andrew Tatum, boribella. boribella said: RT @dreamact: What's up, tweeps.- hot news from NC: http://bit.ly/hADNAF so sad [...]
If we have to pay out-of-state tuition, where exactly is the help we allegedly get through tax-payer subsidized education? Where? I can’t believe an elected official ANYWHERE would be so out of touch with reality by saying he is not AWARE of the state collecting ALL KINDS of taxes from undocumented immigrants. Either he doesn’t care or is simply not paying attention and out of touch with the issues, with his choices and actions being influenced by bias, hatred or fear. It is utterly unbelievable.
It’s clear that Cleveland has no business drafting legislation concerning immigrants. He simply doesn’t understand the issue.
In my opinion, nobody in the world should have the right to forbid somebody from going to college. These people needs to understand that education is very important because mankind decided to make it important and to make it a business for a better living. Thousands and thousands of years ago people just lived in the wilds and hunt for food. Mankind thought that life would be more easier and a lot more interesting if they discover the mysteries of life. Because of all those discoveries we have everything we have now and people should continue to be educated to come up with better ideas. Nobody should say “I don’t want you to go to college in my country because you are an illegal immigrant and you should stay where born”. The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA should increase the amount of professionals and decrease the amount of ignorant people because people will continue to immigrate no matter what. They will immigrate by sea, under the sea, underground, and who knows? maybe they’ll immigrate by private planes or spaceships. These people need to understand that the DREAM ACT is going to make students go to college, be smart, and gain the amount of professionals in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Having a lot of professionals in one country benefits the whole country. GOD created the world for everybody.
No problem I can think of that has been solved by stopping someone from going to college.