Assume that a popularly-elected government enacts a law. The law has the backing of an overwhelming majority of the people. Yet government officials decide they don’t like the law and choose to ignore it.
The above describes a clear violation of the single most important foundation of a free society: rule of law. It also describes the actions of many decision makers in our federal and state governments regarding illegal immigration. Federal law clearly states that foreign citizens of any age who enter our country outside of legal channels are to be deported. And yet the powers-that-be find endless logic-defying means to cloud the issue, against the law and the will of the people.
The issue rose to the forefront recently in North Carolina because the community college system decided that illegal aliens should be officially admitted as students, pending a legislative review.
UNC president Erskine Bowles then suggested that the university system should explore charging illegal aliens residing in North Carolina in-state tuition. Many people are arguing against this. Why should U.S. citizens outside of North Carolina be forced to pay more than non-citizens who have broken the law to get here? Indeed, there is a federal law that specifically prohibits doing this, IRIRA 505.
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Jay Schalin is a writer/researcher for the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, NC. This item is excerpted from the Pope Center’s Clarion Call feature.
