What is the difference between an “illegal immigrant” and an undocumented immigrant?” That is the question that came up on Oct 16 when Diverse posted an article on our Facebook page by the Dallas Morning News titled “Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Paying In-State Tuition Rates Also Get Texas Financial Aid.”
As a follow up, we discovered this article by the Texas Tribune which discussed the story in detail.
https://www.texastribune.org/2011/10/25/undocumented-students-texas-receive-financial-aid/
In our post, we asked our Facebook followers to share their thoughts. Here are some comments that caught our attention:
Emilia Avalos: Let’s drop the “I” word. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes, we all do better when we all do better 🙂
Becky Pérez: Undocumented families and youth Pay taxes… Anytime you purchase something you pay a tax. Many take out private loans or work two jobs just to finish. Like other populations we have to look at the big picture, they are here, they want to contribute to society. To our American fabric, what happens when kids drop out? Think about the community as a whole, there are issues with how we feel entitled to things. What we should fight for are our tax dollars that ate being used to fund privatization of schools, or our bailouts of major corporations. Let’s focus on big companies not immigration that is a scapegoat for our American economic troubles.
Stavan Corbett For Board of Regents District 4: Undocumented is the correct term… individuals themselves are not illegal… In our Country every human deserves access to education at a level playing field. Especially if they were raised in the state they and have been empowered to further their education, hopes and dreams
