Macon Telegraph

OPINION PAGE

Sunday, Jun. 27, 2010

Regents determined to create own immigration policy

By D.A. KING

Call it the latest example of immigration law “nullification” — the negation and disregard of the law to further an agenda or policy goal.

The leadership and the majority at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia are apparently stubbornly determined to adhere to their recently exposed policy of admitting illegal aliens to Georgia’s public colleges — a “no illegal alien left behind” doctrine.

So, as the Regents have already done, let’s set aside the clearly worded laws designed to protect Americans in their own country and ask some obvious moral questions.

Why do the Regents want to take away classroom seats from citizens and legally present immigrant students and spend tax dollars to educate students here in violation of our laws, who are deportable at any time and are not eligible to work in the United States upon graduation?

Granted, workplace enforcement of our immigration laws is virtually non existent.

That could be the Regent’s reasoning. “The illegals are going to steal the jobs of Americans anyway; we should go ahead and educate them at taxpayer expense and thereby clearly demonstrate our own highly advanced moral superiority and noble enlightenment.”

I guess this possibility makes as much sense as any other answer. The attitude certainly isn’t a rarity.

But it brings up another question. How do the Regents justify the message being sent to real immigrant families across Georgia? Families that waited in line, who have honored the long, rich and sacred tradition of American immigration by coming here legally?

Having spent years going through the system that takes in more legal immigrants than any other nation in the world, the recent arrivals to Georgia are greeted with the Regent’s message that they are complete fools for going to the trouble.

Illegal children of the border jumpers are rewarded and allowed to take university classroom spaces so coveted in the new country by the puzzled immigrant who by now is correctly wondering about this whole “and justice for all, equal protection under the law” concept he has heard so much about. What a country.

The constant talking point from the left on this is that “we shouldn’t punish the children for what the parents did.” It is clear to many who actually think this through that we shouldn’t punish legally present youngsters for what their parents did not do — sneak across our border illegally and scream for special treatment as a civil right.

The Department of Homeland Security tells us that Georgia has more illegals than Arizona. Look no further than attitudes like the Regent’s admissions policy as one solid reason for that alarming statistic.

Despite the fact that there has been a very efficient system in place in Georgia since 2006, the Regents are still scratching their heads over how to verify the immigration status/eligibility of applicants for admission to our universities.

Real immigrants and citizen students would be very lucky if they use even a fraction of the zeal illustrated in the university system’s effort to ferret out ineligible dependents for the system’s employee health insurance program.

In their current “Dependent Insurance Audit,” the Regents have implemented a no-nonsense program of verification and sent each worker a letter promising to terminate the dependent coverage for any employee who cannot produce acceptable documentation of “eligibility.”

Ironic isn’t it?

For a university system employee who has listed their spouse as an additional insured on the group health insurance, the Regents have instituted a requirement that the employee produce a copy of nothing less than a marriage certificate. No undocumented spouses tolerated. And no apologies.

Along with Social Security numbers for all concerned, the Regents also require a copy of a federal income tax return or a joint bank/credit account, household bill or joint mortgage/lease from the last six months establishing current residency and the claimed dependent as a spouse. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia should make it just as difficult for an illegal alien to take a seat in our post secondary education system as they do for an ineligible individual to obtain dependent health insurance coverage.

The Regents should quickly reconsider the contemptible policy of putting illegal aliens in front of America’s citizens and immigrants. And the governor should be the most outspoken in that demand.

D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. www.thedustininmansociety.org.