Linked by David Adams on Wed 6th Apr 2005 20:21 UTC
This month's Wired magazine has a terriffic story about a team of students from a high school in an economically depressed part of Phoenix, who took part in an underwater-robot building competition against students from the top universities in the country -- and won. All of the students are undocumented Mexican immigrants who don't qualify for most financial aid or even in-state tuition, and therefore can't afford to attend college, in the US, Mexico, or anywhere. When I read the article I determined to try to do something to help give these kids their chance, and I was delighted to discover that their faculty advisor has set up a scholarship fund for them, and I'm about to donate some money to help. I'd like to encourage OSNews readers to read the story, and if they feel the same way, to donate.
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I think some of you guys are probably way off on the tax issue. It's my understanding that, as a whole, undocumented immigrants pay at least their fair share of taxes. They are able to take part in some benefit from taxes, such as subsidized public transportation. schools for their children, help from charities that receive state grants, but there are many tax-funded benefits that they do not get: social security, medicare, scholarhips and grants, business loans, etc. And though many of them work for cash, they are at an income level that would more likely qualify them for Earned income tax credits (that they don't get) rather than as income tax payers. But they pay sales taxes, pay local government fees, and in may cases pay payroll tax, including social security, that they aren't qualified to receive the benefit of.
So you can argue that they're stealing job opportunity from the lowest quartile of native population, which is certainly somewhat true, but the tax issue is a red herring.
Here are some results from Florida, a state with a big illegal immigrant "problem:"
http://www.ailf.org/ipc/policy_reports_2002_pay.asp