Scarborough Country Partial Transcript -- Educating Illegals in Georgia
See
transcript from the entire show, which aired May 28,2003
About Georgia Senator Sam Zamarripa
Still to come: “The View from SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.”
Applying to a Georgia state college this fall? You may have some
competition from beyond our borders-illegal immigrants and the
tuition incentives that some states are giving. That’s
next.
And, later, we’ve got “The
Buzz” on SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCARBOROUGH: Still ahead: “The
View from SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.” Georgia says, come on in
all, y’all-why the Peach State is giving state tuition
incentives to illegal immigrants.
A heated debate coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCARBOROUGH: Welcome back to SCARBOROUGH
COUNTRY.
I’ve got to tell you, I’m
still ticked off about that last segment. Empire-building is
not what the United States has ever done. If we were trying to
do it, after World War II, hey, we got screwed. We liberated
France. We liberated Germany. And they had the freedom to thumb
their nose at us before this war started. Empire. Some empire.
Our men and women are coming home.
Anyway, on to another subject that
just ticks me off. Some institutions of higher learning around
the country are giving illegal immigrants a break and think they
should pay less in college tuition than your kids. Here is our
“View From SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY.”
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCARBOROUGH (voice-over): These people
are crossing the border between Mexico and America illegally.
That’s right. They’re breaking the law. But if they
want to attend college in the state of Georgia, their tuition
bills will be less than yours.
Three Georgia schools, Dalton State
College, Gainesville College, and Southern Polytechnic State
University, are all offering reduced in-state tuition to illegal
immigrants. That means one of these people might pay $1,163 per
semester to attend Dalton State, while a legal resident of Florida,
for instance, will pay nearly three times as much. Four other
states offer similar arrangements. Texas, California, New York
and Utah all give illegal immigrants tuition breaks.
One Georgia college president says:
“I just feel that, in the long run, it’s better for
society if they get a degree. Hopefully, they can become documented
and contribute to society.” Fair enough, but, in the long
run, what’s even better for society is that people don’t
break the law to get here in the first place. And by offering
discount access to America’s college campuses, aren’t
we once again encouraging people to make a run for the border?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCARBOROUGH: All right, with me now
from Atlanta, Georgia, is state Senator Sam Zamarripa.
Senator Zamarripa, thanks for being
with us.
Let me ask you, why should illegal
immigrants get a better tuition break on going to school in Georgia
than my children?
SAM ZAMARRIPA (D), GEORGIA STATE SENATOR:
Joe, I watched your opening with great interest.
And let me first say that the issue
of immigration is not an issue about tuition in colleges or universities
in Georgia. It’s an issue that’s much larger than
that.
(CROSSTALK)
SCARBOROUGH: But it is in this case.
ZAMARRIPA: No, Joe, that is one, actually,
small issue related to the larger issue of U.S. immigration in
Georgia or in the United States.
SCARBOROUGH: But that’s the
issue, though, that we brought you on to talk about and what
we’re concerned about. Why should a...
ZAMARRIPA: And I’m glad...
SCARBOROUGH: OK.
ZAMARRIPA: I’m glad to talk
about it in the context of the following.
No. 1, U.S. immigration policy is
not working. We need to fix it. And you and I are going to agree
on that and your guests and I are going to agree on that. That’s
a federal issue.
SCARBOROUGH: So we fix it by letting
illegal immigrants get a break on tuition, when they’re
here illegally in the first place?
ZAMARRIPA: Joe, one of the biggest
casualties of September 11, as you well know, was immigration
policy between the U.S. and Mexico. It was set back. We had an
amnesty program well under way, a workers-documentation program
that we had agreed upon. It’s been set back for years.
So we’ve got to get that back on track before we can address
any of these other issues.
And the second issue, Joe-and this
is most important-is that our U.S. economy, our large businesses,
our manufacturing operations are dependent on immigrant labor.
This is going to continue in our future. And so to say that tuition
is a problem related to immigration is to miss the sort of larger
economic issue. And I’m glad to debate that on the merit.
SCARBOROUGH: All right, let me bring
in Phil Kent. He’s president of the Southeastern Legal
Foundation.
Mr. Kent, do you have a problem with
illegal immigrants getting a better break on college tuition
than, say, kids of hard-working American citizens? It just seems
so simple to me.
PHIL KENT, SOUTHEASTERN LEGAL FOUNDATION:
Well, absolutely, Joe. It is simple. And it’s undermining
the rule of law.
Congress passed a law in 1996 specifically
stating that universities and colleges aren’t supposed
to be granting any education benefits to college students. My
radical friend Sam Zamarripa is well known in Georgia for wanting
driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, in-state tuition.
He’s a big open-borders man. He loves this stuff.
We’ve got to tighten the borders.
I’m glad he’s finally paying lip service to that.
And this in-state tuition thing is absolutely outrageous.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, Phil, doesn’t
it also cause a problem if we have an illegal alien crisis in
America? And those numbers keep going through the roof. Doesn’t
it cause a problem if we encourage them, say, hey, once you get
in here, once you get over the borders, we’re going to
give you a break on tuition?
KENT: Well, absolutely. We’ve
got the most generous legal immigration policy in the whole world.
Let’s respect that and let’s start deporting people,
like U.S. law says. I’m going to write a letter to these
three universities demanding these students be identified and
deported.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, Senator, obviously-I
want to go to you-whatever Georgia is doing regarding illegal
immigration isn’t working. In 1990, Georgia had 34,000
illegal immigrants. In 2000, that number grew to more than 280,000.
And according to the INS, Georgia is one of the 10 worst states
for illegal immigration.
And, again, just explain to me, Senator,
very simply in the time we have remaining, how can it be that
us giving breaks to illegal immigrants discourages illegal immigrants
from coming to your state and my state?
ZAMARRIPA: First of all, the state
of Georgia is not in the immigration business. It’s not
in our state constitution. It’s not in our purview. We
do not manage immigration here in Georgia. We don’t stop
people at the border of Alabama when they’re coming into
our state or Tennessee. That’s not our business.
SCARBOROUGH: But, certainly, though,
Senator, you can encourage them, though, can you not, by giving
them breaks on tuition?
ZAMARRIPA: I’ll tell you, we
do not give them breaks. We have a policy about non-Georgia residents
that applies across the board. You can be a resident of Georgia-if
I send my child to graduate school for the next four years and
they come back, they’re no longer a resident and they have
to become a resident again in order to have in-state tuition.
This is a very, very confusing public
policy that is confounded by the inability of the federal government
to come to terms with an adequate worker program in the United
States. This is not a border problem.
(CROSSTALK)
SCARBOROUGH: All right, Senator, thank
you.
ZAMARRIPA: Thank you very much.
SCARBOROUGH: We’ve got to go.
Appreciate both of you being with us tonight.
And I agree with him on that one.
It is confusing and confounding, because, I’ll tell you
what. If my kid is an out-of-state student in Georgia, I would
think an illegal alien from Mexico or some other place would
also be an out-of-state resident. But, hey, what do I know. Like
he said, it’s confusing and confounding.
Still to come: “The Buzz,”
SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY-style. That’s coming up.
And Washington is whispering that
Senate John Kerry is going to take the Democratic nomination.
Why? His wife’s deep pockets.
And the dragging question: Who in
Hollywood is lighting up?
Those stories and much more when SCARBOROUGH
COUNTRY returns after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
See transcript from the entire show, which aired May 28,2003
