| Lack of Asset Bill may lead to a bigger deficit |
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Colorado’s collective shadow will be cast this week as the state legislature debates the Asset Bill. The Senate comprised of a majority of Democrats passed the Bill and sent it on to the House, comprised of a majority of Republicans. The real unveiling will come from the House and should be quite a spectacle as Republican legislators expose their true colors. It has become apparent that comprehensive national immigration reform will not be passed under the current federal administration as legislators continue to dillydally around; therefore, leaving it up to states to shape legislation. As I have mentioned in other columns, this opens the door to civil and human rights violations.
Coloradoans stand at the crossroads of state immigration reform. It’s highly unlikely that Colorado will provide a roadmap for other states to follow.
The failure to pass the ASSET Bill may cause further deficit in the long run. Keep in mind that the proposed tuition costs for undocumented children will lay somewhere between current in-state and out-of-state prices. Savvy lawyers and politicians that have crafted the law are cognizant that it will be vetted in the House. As it stands money will continue to flow into state education coffers. There will be no hand outs to undocumented children and no free-rides.
Opponents continue to hang onto unfounded fears about the proposed bill and the question of economic efficiency, a sacred cow seldom questioned. They argue that the ASSET Bill will cost taxpayers bundles of cash, becoming an incentive for more illegal border crossings. They should look further into real legislation that has incentivized citizens from Mexico to cross the border; issues like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Politicians turn a blind eye when it comes to critically analyzing this piece of reprehensible legislation. What has become apparent because of this legislation is continued exploitation of immigrants on both sides of la frontera.
Children inherit the burdens of their forefathers and foremothers. They remain powerless pawns in a game called politics. Youth will suffer the long term ramifications of continued educational deprivation. The Asset Bill offers young children an opportunity to contribute significantly to the state treasury before and after graduation; hence the Asset Bill. The State of Colorado has already invested money for recipients of this proposed legislation through public school funding. Students meeting the specifications of this bill will have graduated from Colorado’s high schools. They are the future scholars, doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers and community activists whose roots are planted solidly in American soil.
One of the lame excuses used by the Republicans that seemingly drown out the opponents is that “without legal status the undocumented beneficiary students would still have no employment opportunities if they graduated from a Colorado university.” College degrees may not mean anything if the economy doesn’t change. Children with or without college degrees, will join the long unemployment lines in America’s major cities. This should be the incentive for both parties to coalesce and begin the healing process over a wedge issue that has divided Coloradoans.
Will true compassion come to fruition or will we haggle for the next 2 years to legitimize the presence of the undocumented worker? Some brown legislators remain on the fence on this one, unable to muster up enough courage to vote yes. In one of my past columns on the DREAM Act, I argued that its passage could become a nightmare. The lack of effective legislation for youth to obtain educational increments will cost the state in the long run. America’s prisons are full of brown uneducated children.
There are others who are preaching the hard line; accusing undocumented individuals of selfishly taking from the coffers without returning anything. The oddity is that immigrants still pick the crops in Colorado, even if this state is seen as hostile towards them. They continue to do the jobs that Coloradoans refuse to do at dirt wages.
There is hope. State Representative Tom Massey, Republican chairman of the House Education Committee, informed some of his cronies that “he plans to support a re-worked bill to provide reduced rate of college tuition to undocumented students.”
Lurking over this fiasco are the presidential elections. Immigraphobic legislation seems to be trumping about who will be seated in the White House as in house quibbling continues. Tancredo and company haven’t flinched. It appears that the house will implode if the Republicans don’t get some nooses around some of their own who are steadfast on building longer and higher fences and using deportation as a response to immigration.
Let’s hope that politicians make good decisions at the crossroads.
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo is an Independent Journalist.
©2012 The Weekly Issue/El Semanario, Inc.
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