The New Radical Chic: Send an Illegal Alien to College



President Obama recently claimed that “we can be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.” Apparently his buddies in the globalist Silicon Valley billionaires circle missed the memo – the part where the law is addressed. They just want their foreign workers, the hell with the law. Their plan is to encourage illegal immigration with special scholarships just – and only — for law breakers.

This sounds like a felony to me.

Axiom: Anything that encourages illegal immigration tends to produce more illegal immigration. That’s why Congress criminalized such behavior under the term “harboring.” People go to jail for harboring illegal aliens.

The United States Code provides that any person who “encourages or induces an alien to … reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such … residence is or will be in violation of the law” OR “aids or abets the commission” of such acts, is guilty of a felony, punishable by up to five years. (8. U.S.C. 1324; INA Sec. 274) . There it is. Plain as can be. The only exception to harboring is “mere employment”; anything else, like providing transportation, housing, shelter or doing anything that helps the illegal alien remain is harboring.

This sounds like the world’s most elite alien harboring conspiracy.

In what most would consider an appalling lack of judgment, billionaires from Silicon Valley are – in the name of philanthropy – funding scholarships at colleges and universities for illegal aliens – knowing they are illegal aliens. According to the Wall Street Journal, the list of donors (either individually or through family foundations) includes Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm Pilot; Andrew Grove, co-founder of Intel Corp.; Mark Leslie, founder of the former Veritas Software Corp.; and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs.

Beyond the obvious criminal implications, this push to help illegal alien students is misguided on so many levels. On an individual level, while these donors may feel they are generously helping an illegal alien, they are also hurting countless other legal residents and U.S. citizens who desperately want to go to college and are finding it harder and harder to get one of those coveted admissions slots.

On a policy level, one may argue that giving scholarships to illegal aliens students gives them a leg up and does not reward criminal behavior because the student was brought to the U.S. when very young. Many of these students are in their twenties, so who knows when they came. But even if it were, the parents here illegally are absolutely rewarded for coming here illegally – their kids got an education at everyone’s expense – first via a public K-12 education, and then through these scholarships and other similar programs.

If U.S. born students had all the educational support, financing and opportunity they needed, and if this weren’t a patent violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, perhaps – just perhaps – the policy argument makes sense. But where you stand depends on where you sit. I can tell you where a lot of U.S. citizens students won’t be sitting: in college classrooms.

About Author

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Dan is the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)'s President after joining the organization in 1982. He has testified more than 50 times before Congress, and been cited in the media as "America's best-known immigration reformer." Dan has appeared on virtually every significant TV and radio news/talk program in America and, in addition to being a contributing editor to ImmigrationReform.com, has contributed commentaries to a vast number of print media outlets.

16 Comments

  1. avatar

    This is exactly the kind of “cause” that appeals to the limousime Liberals. But it is not philanthropy, it is anti-American criminality. This is part of the legacy of the 1960s “Civil Rights Movement”. You get to pick the laws that you wish to obey, then you label everyone who objects a racist.

  2. avatar

    If you want to see how far this is going, go to the editorial in the March 10 Tampa Bay Times favoring an illegal immigrant who graduated (!) from law school at Florida State U and was denied membership in the Bar Associatiion. So now he’s suing and his case will be heard by the FL Supreme Court. Of course he’s been in this country since his parents snuck across the border when he was a child, and has done NOTHING to gain legal status. And how many AMERICAN students were turned down when the university accepted him into the law school? Knowing he wouldn’t be eligible for the Bar or to work? If he wins the case, we’ll have a flood of this tyype of behavior and who knows how many illegal immigrants practicing law in our courts!!! STOP THIS PLEASE!!! Does this never end?

    • avatar

      No, it doesn’t ever end. It all started in 1965. If it ever “ends,” it won’t be before America becomes Brazil. And don’t forget Republicans: John McAmnesy and George Open Boarder Bush were no different than Obama.

  3. avatar

    These adults had 6 months after their 18th birthday to go home and come back legally on a student visa or residency. They are moved to the front of the list.

    If they don’t, they are just as illegal as their parents.

    No Apple products for me, and my computer from now on with have the athlon. This country has so many deserving poor youth that can’t afford college. I cry for them.

  4. avatar

    Gee, lets see if someone from our country who’s poor and can’t even speak Spanish go down pass the border and try and hook up with some super rich Mexican Multi=Millionaire and try and convince them to provide us with a Free Ride through four years of college. Wow, I’d like to find out what the odds are on having that happen?

    Point being, who’s that stupid down there? Would the Mexican Government allow it? HELL NO.

    We have allowed the Bar of Morality and common sense to be lowered so far that were almost all in Hell already.

    How Much lower will we go before a revolt, woops, I mean revival need to start?????????

    Won’t be seein me Senorita..

  5. avatar

    Well, it’s obvious the billionaires are breaking the law. When you have that much money, you can usually “buy” your way into or out of anything. You can fine them but they have more money than God and it wouldn’t even make them wince. You could possibly prosecute them and give them prison time. Still wouldn’t matter because they have “people” running their businesses when they are away. (Look at Martha Stewart.) Maybe the best way is to legislate and require that the philanthropists sponsor a U.S. citizen for every ILLEGAL alien sponsored. i’m sure the colleges know who the ILLEGALS are. If it were up to me, I would just send them to prison and give them a year for every ILLEGAL whose college education they have financed. Who knows, they might find religion and repent of their “sins” while behind bars.

  6. avatar

    What makes the overpaid dorks in Silicon Valley think that we care what they want versus what’s legal. No green card, no job. This country does not belong to Calif., or its Hispanic fearing fools that believe that computers rule.

  7. avatar

    This is the newest ploy instigated by Razaunida and the hispanic crusaders: a play on words, (incorrectly morphed, incidentally) to convince the media and in turn, the American citizens, to accept that the two terms, illegal and immigrant are synonymous. WRONG!

    Illegal aliens are NOT IMMIGRANTS. Illegal aliens are just exactly what the term signifies, they are illegal. Immigrants are the hard-working people who come to America legally with the full intent of becoming citizens of this nation and who will become patriotic members of this nation’s society.

    The illegal aliens state that they do not want to become citizens for they are aware that this process will require them and their myriad family members to be responsible for their own welfare. Their existence in this country will radically change from that of parasitic to one of autonomy. Amnesty was attempted years ago and failed for this very reason.

    These people cross our borders knowing that they are breaking our federal laws. Razaunida relies on the apathetic tendency of Americans to simply state that someone else will take care of the immigration crisis.
    This group rants that the illegal aliens are subjected to pathetic living environments and poor wages in their effort to maintain sympathy for these people. (Apparently this worked on the philanthropists’ level). They neglect to state the obvious: the Mexican illegal aliens are not forced to cross our borders illegally, they make this decision on their own volition with complete knowledge of the ramifications. They know that they will pay nothing to live here, while Americans continue to pay income taxes; social security, healthcare, education and welfare.

    Now, the illegal aliens can add another coup: they will receive scholarships from misguided Americans who are attempting to retain the limelight for their generous gestures. Their generosity may be genuine, but their patriotism is obviously non-existent.

    America’s legal citizens certainly deserve a few breaks. The American students deserve more than second best!
    They deserve to know that people who break our laws will be punished, not rewarded by a cowardly government.
    It is wrong that American college students are passed over by the generosity of their own countrymen, while the illegal aliens are now allowed to simply wake up one morning and decide to accept a scholarship to the college of their choice.
    The truth is that this nation’s students have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This newest trend by America’s wealthy to provide scholarships to illegal aliens is criminal and must be questioned.
    This action borders on treason. Think about it.

  8. avatar

    Until such time as federal law is rescinded, it is a crime to aid and abet illegal aliens. The longer we allow existing law to be violated the more difficult it will be to enforce it. Elected and appointed officials, along with these millionaires who aid and abet illegal aliens must learn, and learn soon, they are not above the law.

  9. avatar
    Anonymous Coward on

    Several time a day I hear the following announcement on various NPR programs:

    “[Funding for this program] is made possible by a grant from the Gates Foundation, who believes that every person deserves the opportunity to live a full, happy and productive life.”

    But oddly enough, only people of “color” qualify for scholarships from the Gates Foundation…

    • avatar

      This is the consequence of a 50-year-long campaign to dehumanize white Americans. The Liberal elite no longer feels obliged to recognize us as persons.

  10. avatar
    Viet Nam Vet 67-68 on

    Give out a list of the Billionairs and never buy any of their products again. I will not support any one who gives people that are destroying our way of life, Constitution and our Laws. If everyone dosen’t contact their Reps. in
    Congress and tell them if they support Illegal’s we won’t support them.

  11. avatar

    Laurene Powell Jobs is a former Goldman Sachs banker. Was Steve Jobs killed by the globalists? 3 months after his death Tim Cook met with Goldman Sachs bankers. Did someone give Mr. Jobs the Alexander Litveneko treatment? Anyone who does not join the globalists gets eliminated.

  12. avatar

    Unconscionable, and these wayward souls expect legal American citizens to purchase their products after getting spit on by them. Like a good majority of our useless government representatives, the special interest open border imbeciles, and the rest of the corporate elite parasites, that suck up to these illegal aliens, they all deserve to be behind bars together!