Helping Those In Need

In Lawful Texan's editorial over immigration and tuition laws in Texas (Perry rightly defends tuition program!!!, October 30, 2011), Sherrell states that she doesn't believe in Rick Perry's idea of helping out the immigrants in Texas by allowing them to pay in-state tuition rates. I'll be quite honest from the start, I disagree.

Most incoming illegal college students didn't choose to come to the United States on their own. As a matter of fact, their parents did. Quite honestly, I find it unfair to those individuals who have lived in the US for a large part of their lives to pay tuition rates of an international or out-of-state student when their parents have been paying taxes the entire time they've been living in the state of Texas. These taxes may come in all shapes and forms, such as the sales tax which everyone pays while buying products anywhere in the state of Texas.

I don't particularly believe it's fair to those students who managed to make outstanding grades in high school to be denied the chance of attending college just based on documentation they don't have. To offer an in-state tuition rate to those individuals would really open doors for them to continue studying, obtain a legal status, get a degree, and then get a job that will help the economy grow in the future. What this country needs now more than ever are qualified and skilled individuals to take the economy one step further than the previous generations have done so.

While entering the United States illegally isn't the best of choices, the fact is that many illegal students don't really have a say as to whether they do or not. Many illegal parents are faced with tough choices in leaving their home nation to pursue a better future, not for themselves, but for their children and their children's children. As an immigrant myself, I know that it must have been difficult for my parents to leave the nation they were born in knowing that they would most likely never see their family ever again just to offer my brother and I a chance of having a brighter future. This brighter future consists of attending college, and if Perry will allow immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates, then God bless him. Immigrants usually have to take the lowest paying jobs just to survive, and with ridiculously high tuition rates, attending college for most immigrants would be nearly impossible.