I hate to throw cold water on this--but these kids won't be able to work in the U.S. legally even if they manage to graduate. In fact, I'm surprised that the ICE people haven't stopped by their homes to deport them all back to Mexico.
Some other kids had the same problem a year or two back, when they went to Canada with a science fair group, only to end up deported when their papers didn't check out on the way back in.
The solution? Sensible immigration reform. Likely to happen any time soon? Guess again. The same folks who are busy outsourcing jobs aren't likely to want to have to pay people market wages when they can get by just fine with paying them serf wages and not having to pay them benefits.
Does this suck big time? You bet it does. Living in Phoenix means having to live with horrendous insurance rates, because undocumented people can't get driver's licenses [and consequently, auto insurance.] It meand having to live with an equally horrendous crime rate [undocumented people are frightened of the police, and won't report crimes. Low-lifes know this, prey on the illegals, and the problem spreads out of the barrios and into the rest of the community--so everybody is suffering all sorts of crime here.]
But I'll have to contribute to the scholarship fund anyway--good scientific minds are hard to come by. We can't afford to waste any of them!1
The answer to all this? Call your congressmen and demand that they do something about reforming our immigration policy before we lose any more magnficient minds because they don't have the proper paperwork. [it may do some good if calls come from people who don't live in the Southwest--from what I hear from my congressional reps, the rest of Congress doesn't believe the problem is so bad.]
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mmmag
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Date: 2005-04-03 06:21 pm (UTC)Some other kids had the same problem a year or two back, when they went to Canada with a science fair group, only to end up deported when their papers didn't check out on the way back in.
The solution? Sensible immigration reform. Likely to happen any time soon? Guess again. The same folks who are busy outsourcing jobs aren't likely to want to have to pay people market wages when they can get by just fine with paying them serf wages and not having to pay them benefits.
Does this suck big time? You bet it does. Living in Phoenix means having to live with horrendous insurance rates, because undocumented people can't get driver's licenses [and consequently, auto insurance.] It meand having to live with an equally horrendous crime rate [undocumented people are frightened of the police, and won't report crimes. Low-lifes know this, prey on the illegals, and the problem spreads out of the barrios and into the rest of the community--so everybody is suffering all sorts of crime here.]
But I'll have to contribute to the scholarship fund anyway--good scientific minds are hard to come by. We can't afford to waste any of them!1
The answer to all this? Call your congressmen and demand that they do something about reforming our immigration policy before we lose any more magnficient minds because they don't have the proper paperwork. [it may do some good if calls come from people who don't live in the Southwest--from what I hear from my congressional reps, the rest of Congress doesn't believe the problem is so bad.]