OPINION:
No one would reward a shoplifter just because he manages to get out of the store with stolen merchandise, but every Democrat in the Virginia state Senate — and one Republican — voted last week to reward those who broke into the country illegally and get a valuable public benefit.
By a vote of 20-19, the Senate defeated an attempt to block students who came, or were brought, to America illegally to qualify for in-state tuition in Virginia’s public colleges. The blocking measure, introduced by state Sen. Richard H. Black, Loudoun Republican, would have undone an April opinion by state Attorney General Mark R. Herring that enables such students to qualify, just by being here, for the same tuition rates as legal residents.
Mr. Herring and the Democrats, and the one Republican, should be asked: If an intruder broke into their homes, would they invite him to help himself to whatever he wants? Wouldn’t that be compassionate and fair?
This is the Mark Herring who won his job in by a scant 907 votes, out of more than 2.2 million votes cast, and who had never once mentioned in his campaign the “right” to discounted tuition rates for the euphemistically named “Dreamers.” If he had, he probably would not be the state’s attorney general.
The tuition discounts are based on the fact that these illegal immigrants were granted temporary legal status under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, established in 2012. Mr. Herring contends that the students are entitled to the discounted tuition rates because they are “legally present” in the state under the program. The program, and those like it, are under challenge in 24 states, the states most affected by the surge of the illegals, many of them unaccompanied children, across the border last year.
Mr. Black cited a 1996 federal law that he says could require Virginia to extend in-state rates to any American citizen if such rates are offered to those here illegally. If the discounts are required as a matter of “compassion and fairness,” how is it “fair” for illegals to qualify for in-state rates at Virginia colleges and universities when legal residents of neighboring states, such as Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina, as well as the District of Columbia, are not?
The in-state discount is not insignificant. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, calculates that out-of-state students typically pay three to four times as much as Virginians. For the 2013-14 academic year, a full-time student at George Mason University, who is a legal resident of Virginia, paid $7,220 a year in tuition and mandatory “education and general” fees. An out-of-state student at George Mason paid $25,904. At the University of Virginia, the comparable figures are $10,460 for a resident vs. $37,846 for an out-of-state student, and $9,703 vs. $25,549 at Virginia Tech.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the new Democratic governor, no fan of the civility-in-government movement, calls Mr. Black’s measure “counterproductive and mean-spirited” and had threatened to veto it if the legislation passed. In his State of the Commonwealth address earlier this month, he asked the legislature to write the discount for illegals into state law. He didn’t make that a campaign promise, either, and like Mr. Herring, narrowly won his job.
The dilemma of what to do about the illegals in our midst is a cruel one. The political reality is that most of them are here permanently, and education is crucial to a prosperous population. But with 140 members of the Virginia General Assembly up for re-election this fall, voters expect the men and women they send to Richmond to find a solution short of encouraging a surge of the foreign young to break the law.
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