- The Dream Act Jared Polis shoves down Colorado taxpayers'
throats (CD "Your Take" Dec. 21) costs millions more than he
acknowledges. It may be a "dream" for illegal alien students,
but a nightmare for Coloradans.
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- It's been shown that from one-third to one-half of illegal
aliens work off the books. Their activity in the United States represents
the second largest underground economy in the world. Billions of dollars
are not paid in IRS income taxes annually because employers defraud the
federal government. American taxpayers make up the difference. Additionally,
illegal aliens send $56 billion annually back to their home countries -
thus draining our country of money.
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- The Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.
showed that the average illegal alien head of household uses $2,700 more
in welfare benefits than they pay in taxes. It costs Colorado taxpayers
over $564.1 million extra annually to pay for educating those 65,000 illegal
alien kids in Colorado.
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- According to Colorado House Representative Jim Welker,
we pay $40 million annually for convicted illegal aliens in our prisons.
We also pay $38.4 million in medical costs for anchor babies, assisted
housing and free lunches.
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- Along the way, few tabulate what it costs us in drug
gangs, diseases brought into Colorado, drivers such as Francisco Montero
who is suspected of killing Lafayette father Dale Englerth in a crash in
September; CU quarterback John Hessler who was hit head on by illegals
and critically injured or the eight women who suffered rapes two years
ago by illegals. Additionally, Officer Don Young was killed in Denver and
Justin Goodman was run over.
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- At Columbine Elementary, 83 percent Hispanic students
(mostly illegals) have created such a disaster in the classroom that Boulder
parents have opted to take their kids elsewhere, as a story in the Rocky
Mountain News reported ("White Flight" 12/19/05). Those parents
did not want their kids suffering in classrooms where the illegal kids
spoke 100 percent Spanish and were functionally illiterate in English.
College-educated parents know their kids must not be stuck in a dumbed-down
classroom that teaches to the lowest educational level. They voted with
their feet for their kids' futures.
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- Jared Polis, very rich and very out of touch with what's
happening, shoves this Dream Act on taxpayers because his kids don't have
to deal with the tension, violence, lowering of academic standards and
confusion of bilingual classrooms.
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- Denver Public Schools in a May 16, 2005 story in the
Rocky Mountain News titled "What Happened" noted that students
suffered a 65 percent drop-out/flunk-out rate. Why? Over 30,000 illegal
alien kids in DPS caused havoc so great with 50 different languages that
one in five teachers quit or transferred out every nine-month cycle.
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- Understand this: when the rate of immigration exceeds
the rate of assimilation, any community or society breaks down - note Paris,
France or Sydney, Australia. When the rate of illegal migration supersedes
our capacity to educate our own children in favor of foreign children -
it defies common sense. Additionally, it degrades education for our own
children and our society.
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- These kids and parents belong in Mexico. They need to
bring that country up to the standards they want - not bring our kids'
education down to theirs.
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- Mark Twain talked about the "assertion-assumption"
concerning the fact that most people stand silent when a social wrong continues
without challenge. Northerners stood silent during slavery. Most people
stand silent over illegal immigration.
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- It's wrong for us to educate kids from another country
illegally in our country to the detriment of our own children. It's wrong
for their parents to be here against our laws. It's wrong for them to force
their language on our culture. It's wrong for them to take college spots
from our kids and drop our standards of education. That 65 percent dropout
rate in Denver trashed the classroom for Colorado kids.
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- What's in store if the Dream Act becomes available? Thousands
of foreign students who should be paying out of state fees will drown our
universities into mediocrity, lower educational standards and sub-standard
college degrees. I invite Jared Polis to open up his considerable pocket
book and pay for those foreign kids himself.
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- It's unacceptable to those of us who play by the rules,
pay our taxes, live in America legally, support our high schools and colleges
while supporting the rule of law in our country.
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- _____
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- Frosty Wooldridge is a former Boulder Valley School District
teacher and is a writer, author and anti-illegal immigration activist.
He lives in Louisville, Colo. The views expressed here are his own, and
not necessarily those of the Colorado Daily management or staff.
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