Perry on immigration

[mamabearCali]

HPV is a little different than polio, whooping cough..etc--you can't be coughed on and get HPV. It takes a deliberate act to get it most of the time (there are exceptions in the case of sexual assault), and 11 year olds are not a really at risk population. For the record, yes you can opt out of the other vaccines as well, but if there is a breakout of the disease you can't go to school.

[tbrown]

The inconvenient truth is the Mexican cartels are a greater threat to American citizens on American soil than someone living in a cave in Afghanistan. A Commander in Chief who cared about America would deploy troops in relation to foreign invaders' threats to America, not his personal gain. And that's not limited to the current one.

[couzin]

HPV is a little different than polio, whooping cough..etc--you can't be coughed on and get HPV. It takes a deliberate act to get it most of the time (there are exceptions in the case of sexual assault), and 11 year olds are not a really at risk population. For the record, yes you can opt out of the other vaccines as well, but if there is a breakout of the disease you can't go to school.

I was making a nod toward the idea of vaccine to prevent - and in this case - cancer. I have lost a bunch of family to various cancers - my younger sister just two weeks ago. If there had been a vaccine - wouldn't you get it? The idea was to get the children before they become sexually active. And here's news - the number of 13 year olds giving birth would tend to indicate that there is some activity going on.

Vaccines were mandated by the federal government based on the 1905 supreme court ruling. Smallpox being one. In the late 1940s and early 1950s - we had to take the vaccines (plus the annual TB test). I don't remember an option to refuse the vaccines or tests. The mandatory part eventually flowed to the States (may have been while I was young - I don't know). There are States that make certain vaccines mandatory to attend public schools an universities that mandate meningitis vaccines. The risk of injury was and is weighed against the outbreak. Probably why the childhood injury act was passed in 86.

[CC Italian]

Oh, what a touchy subject! Well I can tell you that in many public schools in Texas (mainly inner city) a fairly significant percentage of the students are illegal residents. They can not be denied an education by law. Student registration is done by proof of residency, not legal citizen or not. There parents don’t pay taxes. If foreign students parents have a green card they will have to pay taxes and sometimes if they have a work visa they have to pay taxes if they stay long enough in the country but those people are here legally.

One of the main reasons so many stay illegal is so they don’t have to pay for taxes. So they collect all cash jobs. Now, should their children not get an education in our great state because their parents are dishonest? I would personally hate to see any child not get an education but we know it’s not fair that the honest tax payer pay for their child’s education.

Another thing that ticks me off is how many of the parents many illegal immigrants but not all will lie on their proof of residency form and say their kids live in this apartment complex but they really live 5 miles away in another district or school zone. It happens all the time! School district police always have to go out and investigate residency claims and many times they find out they are lying. What a waste of manpower and money!

[Oldgringo]

The inconvenient truth is the Mexican cartels are a greater threat to American citizens on American soil than someone living in a cave in Afghanistan. A Commander in Chief who cared about America would deploy troops in relation to foreign invaders' threats to America, not his personal gain. And that's not limited to the current one.

Give the man a cigar, Bill! He's spot on right, there ain't no difference in any of 'em.

[couzin]

One of the main reasons so many stay illegal is so they don’t have to pay for taxes. So they collect all cash jobs.

Even then - with a government supplied tax identification number, they file taxes and get a nice refund check for having children. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/govt-au ... last-year/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Now tell me the system aint broke.

[Bullwhip]

There parents don’t pay taxes.

I wanna know where they shop and live, I wanna shop and live there too! No sales taxes, no property taxes, how do the other parents pay for school?

[CC Italian]

School taxes are taken from local, state and federal taxed monies. Donations while a small percentage round out the available monies. Local property taxes (valorem taxes) are the bulk of it. Many illegals rent and the owners of the property pay for taxes. There taxes are effectively paid for through rent but it is a substantial lower amount. So I guess you got me their but it is not the same. Let’s put it this way they don't pay the fair share! Many crowd apartments and have brothers, sisters, cousins, friends living together. That doesn't change the amount of money the owner of the rented property is taxed.

To make the problem worse areas with lower property values get less monies in from obviously lower taxes. A child's education costs a minimum of so much in these districts even if these schools do get less money in from local property taxes. So where does the extra monies come from to pay these areas of lower property values and more densely populated homes? You guessed it, state and federal. The majority is allocated form sales and use in state tax but remember the state distributes this levied money how they see fit. So a large portion of your sales tax is used in districts that can't afford to pay for the education. This is where the majority (but not all) of the state taxes allocated to education goes! It’s a state charity fund with a different name!

Finally, federal taxes. Like I said before immigrants with work visas can pay taxes depending on how long they stay in our country and those with green cards DO pay taxes. These people are here legally so they don't fall under illegal immigrants. Undocumented workers is the term we need to pay attention to. They collect cash at most jobs(which brings up a better question, should business owners be prosecuted for this) and some cash comes back to our state through sales tax but many do send money home to their families or return regularly to their native country, so we don't see it again. They do not pay federal taxes if Uncle Sam has no way to regulate them. EDIT: Also these federal monies that are levied from taxes are like state tax in the fact that they are disproportional and more goes to these type of schools districts. If you live in a middle class area do you think that most of the money that was levied in your federal taxes that gets allocated for education goes back to children in your school district? If so I have a great elixir that will cure all for $49.95.

Sorry for the long rant but people need to understand who are paying for the majority of school taxes in this state. Home owners who are legal citizens!

[Toorop]

I have nothing against people wanting to come to this country. I want to know why I cannot get instate tuition but an illegal immigrant can? I currently live outside of Texas and want to go to UT Austin. I have to move to Texas and work for a year before I qualify for instate tuition. I do intend to stay in Texas after I graduate and I do not want to look back.

[philip964]

I have no problem with children of illegals getting in-state tuition. They are living here paying sales tax, which is our state income tax so to speak.

What hurts, is that since our society is some what grouped by where you live, many legal Texas citizens do not have quite the same opportunity as illegal immigrants to attend the top universities in Texas and must go out of state to attend a top university, where they pay out of state tuition.

Their only alternative is to attend Blinn College or Austin Community college for one semester, and then hope to be admitted second semester.

Many young legal Texas citizens with high college entrance test scores, feel slighted by rejection letters from Texas's better universities and chose to attend top schools in other states, where they are required to pay out of state tuition.

The letters notifying them that they have been accepted, second semester to one of Texas's top universities, often arrives before they start college, but after they have paid their out of state tuition elsewhere. This makes their frustration with the perceived discrimination and abandonment by their home state of birth only worse.

This occurs on Perry's watch.

[Toorop]

I have no problem with children of illegals getting in-state tuition. They are living here paying sales tax, which is our state income tax so to speak.

What hurts, is that since our society is some what grouped by where you live, many legal Texas citizens do not have quite the same opportunity as illegal immigrants to attend the top universities in Texas and must go out of state to attend a top university, where they pay out of state tuition.

Their only alternative is to attend Blinn College or Austin Community college for one semester, and then hope to be admitted second semester.

Many young legal Texas citizens with high college entrance test scores, feel slighted by rejection letters from Texas's better universities and chose to attend top schools in other states, where they are required to pay out of state tuition.

The letters notifying them that they have been accepted, second semester to one of Texas's top universities, often arrives before they start college, but after they have paid their out of state tuition elsewhere. This makes their frustration with the perceived discrimination and abandonment by their home state of birth only worse.

This occurs on Perry's watch.

Why are they not being accepted into the top universities? I am not from Texas and I don't understand why they would not have the same opportunities based upon where they live?

[boba]

One of the main reasons so many stay illegal is so they don’t have to pay for taxes. So they collect all cash jobs.

Even then - with a government supplied tax identification number, they file taxes and get a nice refund check for having children. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/govt-au ... last-year/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Now tell me the system aint broke.

The system works exactly the way the Donkeys and Rinos want it to work.

[HankB]

According to a report I saw on TV, Illegal aliens who get in-state tuition at U.T. will save about $91,000 compared to the out-of-state rates over four years.

Think about that - an American citizen from Oklahoma, New York, Guam, Montana, wherever - who decided to attend U.T. is going to pay $91,000 more in tuition than an illegal alien who may have been breaking the law for a decade or more. The out-of-state AMERICAN is going to have to get a larger student loan and KEEP paying, and Paying, and PAYING after he graduates, all for the benefit of the ILLEGAL ALIENS that his tuition money is helping to subsidize.

I knew Perry had signed the bill, but I was willing to cut him some slack as mistakes happen to the best of us . . . except now Perry is DEFENDING his blunder - he actually has the chutzpah to say that the illegal WILL become a burden, and that people who disagree with him are basically BAD PEOPLE, with no heart!

(If there was ever an issue to relax forum rules on salty language . . . it's this. But I will restrain myself. )

So I'll just say . . . Rick Perry, you've lost my vote.

[wharvey]

Personally, I don't like the idea of laws penalizing children for their parents' bad choices. And, I would rather that those children go to college and become productive citizens than to become gang-bangers and criminals or, worst of all, community organizers.

I agree with you in principle but what I don't understand about Texas tuition laws is that someone has to be a resident for at least a year to get in state tuition. Why would a child of illegal immigrant be entitled to in state tuition when someone who was born in Texas to Texan parents who moved out of state after the 3rd grade, have to wait a year after moving back to qualify?

Of course I don't like not being considered a resident for 6 months for fishing and hunting license purposes considering I was born here and lived in the state for 46 years. Moved back this year and have to wait to be considered a resident!

[apostate]

If someone is not a legal resident of this state, why should they get resident tuition? Making them pay the same rate as a legal foreigner on a student visa isn't punishing them. Far from it.