The law is an organism that packs in so much history and so many influences that it’s scarcely within anyone’s mental power to summarize every last point and its origin. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed this systemic concept when he said, “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.” The power of experience over the creation of laws could result in laws that conflict with our sense of justice. One example is the federal law that prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving monetary scholarships.
I know many undocumented immigrants who are good people and do a lot of good for their neighborhoods. The restraints on these undocumented students is unjust. Why should someone who is willing to make the effort to get into college not receive the same privileges as anyone else who made the same effort? Although our system depends on the adherence to existing laws, U students and community members should work to abolish such laws that we deem unjust.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which was passed in 1996, says, “An alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit.”
Texas, California, New York and others have passed state laws providing benefits for illegal immigrants through state funds despite this federal mandate. This is a good thing, for both states’ rights and the people.
Rep. Chris Herrod was inanely ironic when he came to our campus to declare that it would be wrong seeing “(undocumented students) taking advantage of the system.” But everyone who wants to live in our country and consent to our laws should be eligible to take advantage of every legal benefit we have to offer.
Asking the state government to exercise its right to give benefits to illegal students is the moral and legal thing to do.
