By Katy Grimes

SACRAMENTO — Immigration issues within states are becoming more prevalent. The usual complaints are that the federal government isn’t doing enough to enforce U.S. policy.

California is different. Earlier this year, it already embarked into uncharted territories, with the state Legislature voting to allow the children of undocumented aliens to attend the state’s public universities and colleges, at estimated costs of $65 million a year in financial aid and scholarships.

California: Sanctuary State

There have been many failed attempts to pass state laws allowing undocumented immigrants to live and work in California without the constant threat of deportation. Many say that this should have sent a clear message to lawmakers. Even a ballot initiative, the California Opportunity and Prosperity Act, failed to get enough signatures to quality for the November ballot.

“But noooooo,” as John Belushi used to say on “Saturday Night Live.”

Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, together with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, revived the attempt. In one of the most repugnant moves legislators can make, they gutted and amended SB 901, breathing new life into creating a “safe harbor” for illegal immigrants in California.

The sanctuary discussions began with allowing counties to opt in or out of becoming sanctuary counties. But when SB 901 was gutted and amended to include the new language, Steinberg used language that would make the entire state a sanctuary state.

But that’s not all, folks.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, led a contentious conversation in the Assembly Friday surrounding illegal immigrants over his bill, AB 1081, which seeks to remove the teeth of the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities program.

Current law requires local law enforcement agencies to submit arrestees’ fingerprints to ICE, as well as several other Federal Bureau of Investigation databases, then have these federal agencies access the arrestee’s documented criminal and immigration history.

But according to Ammiano, this federal program is problematic because it allows local police agencies to investigate and enforce immigration laws on anyone in the U.S. illegally, instead of just pursuing and arresting the most dangerous illegal immigrants.

Picking and choosing which lawbreakers get deported is apparently what Ammiano wants California law enforcement to be able to do.

 California reality

California has more than a $16 billion deficit, but spends $21 billion annually on illegal, undocumented aliens. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, “Illegal immigrants make up about 28 percent of all foreign-born U.S. residents and slightly less than 4 percent of the  nation’s total population.” And according to the PPIC, “California has a higher share than the rest of the nation of illegal immigrants from Mexico. It has more illegal immigrants overall than any other state—an estimated 2.6 million.”

Apparently not content with spending money the state doesn’t have, lawmakers want to turn California into a sanctuary state.

Sanctuary cities

California is already home to more than 30 Sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities offer  protection to illegal aliens and assistance through welfare benefits, along with refusing enforce the federal immigration laws, thereby offering sanctuary to those in the country illegally, and using taxpayer funds to support them.

In 2010, Los Angeles County spent  $52 million in welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. By the beginning of 2011, that figure jumped to nearly $600 million.

In 2008, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, at the time the mayor of San Francisco, publicized the city’s sanctuary status in a  press release for San Francisco’s Sanctuary City Outreach Program.  Newsome tried to backtrack after it was discovered that the city’s sanctuary policy had protected illegal alien gang members accused of committing serious crimes, including murder.  “In 2009, Newsom attempted to veto an ordinance passed by San Francisco’s even more radical Board of Supervisors which prohibited illegal aliens charged with crimes from being detained by the Department of Homeland Security,” Ohio Jobs and Justice Pac reported.

Hardship stories

Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, argued in favor of making California a sanctuary state, On Friday, he told the story of how a Sacramento woman who is in the state illegally was recently arrested “for selling tamales and trying to feed her family.”

Perez didn’t tell the entire story, but Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, did. Jones reminded lawmakers that the woman had been in the United States for 16 years and had been arrested several times for trespassing on private property.

For every story about personal hardship the media portrays, there are even more about illegal criminal aliens arrested for felony drunk driving, drug crimes, gang violence, vehicular manslaughter, murder, robberies, identity theft, and myriad other dangerous crimes.

“Illegal aliens are involved in criminal activities at a rate that is 2-5 times their representative proportion of the population,” according to P.F. Wagner, the author of “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration.”

Impacts of legislation

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, strongly opposed AB 1081, and said that  issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants rewards law breakers. “Not only is this wildly unpopular among the citizens, but it creates a national security risk,” said Donnelly in an interview.

“It is baffling that, every time our laws become inconvenient for people who are here illegally, we create a new exemption,” he said. “This pattern of pandering is a slap in the face to the law-abiding citizens and to the dedicated families and individuals who have waited for the opportunity to become Americans. We are going to give them California drivers licenses, allow them to vote, pay their college tuition and allow them to become lawyers.”

Donnelly challenged Ammiano Friday on the name of the bill, the “Trust Act,” and said it was “an insult to everyone in this country legally. It should be called the ‘Anti-Trust Act.'”

“We can’t debate the facts anymore,” Donnelly said. “The liberals claim that we don’t want diversity. But it’s liberals who don’t want legal immigrants. Because the immigrants who came here legally, they wave the flag, build businesses, and are fiscal conservatives. They understand what freedom means.”

Both bills have been passed by the Legislature, along party lines, and are headed to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature or veto.

If the governor signs these bills and California becomes a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants, many are saying that Brown could be a one-term governor, or even face a recall. The bills have been whisked through without public input, and were drastically amended, demonstrating that California’s Democrat-controlled Legislature favors its own process over the people of the state.

The California dream of an affordable, top-notch state-sponsored education for all is nothing to dream about for legal California students.

Just signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown was AB 130, the “California Dream Act of 2011,” authored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles. The Dream Act will allow students who are in the country illegally to pay in-state tuition and apply for grants and private-college scholarships, competing with legal residents of the state.

The California Dream Act merely rewards illegal behavior while placing a new financial burden on California taxpayers.

Despite multiple vetoes of previous Dream Act bills by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brown signed Cedillo’s bill on Monday. But Schwarzenegger’s last veto message still resonates: “Given the precarious fiscal condition the state faces at this time, it would not be prudent to place additional demands on our limited financial aid resources as specified in this bill.”

Brown has been slashing and cutting crucial services within the state for months, saying that the budget cuts will be “vast and hurtful, but it’s better to take our medicine now.”

But the hurtful medicine will not be felt by members of the California Teachers Association, thanks to Brown, who recently signed into law AB 114. It gutted the school agency financial oversight laws, will prevent school districts from using July and August to make additional layoffs and will require school districts to maintain programs and staffing levels “commensurate with” the previous year’s levels.

Now with passage of the Dream Act, many expect the CTA to push for more growth and state spending in California’s education system.

Education and Immigration Law

The underlying principles used in the creation of the California college and university system were “for all regardless of their economic means,” and that academic progress was only to be “limited by individual proficiency.”  The passage of the Dream Act just eroded these principles.

The claim that many illegal immigrants currently pay the higher out-of-state tuition on California state college campuses is shaky. In May I wrote a story about the CSU system, which boldly promotes Hispanic educational opportunities at its campuses, and touts the California State University as “the university of choice for Hispanics.”

The vast number of specialty programs California State University colleges have created make the process nearly seamless for Hispanic students who apply for college — regardless of legal status.

“Today, 23.8 percent of CSU students are Hispanic, 14 percent of the CSU staff is Hispanic, 8.2 percent of the CSU full-time faculty is Hispanic and 17 CSU campuses are listed in Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education’s annual Top 100,” states the CSU website.

But many involved in California’s education system are critical of the disregard for state and federal immigration laws by the Legislature and governor.

Federal law states that illegal immigrants “shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state for any postsecondary education benefit … unless a U.S. citizen or national is eligible for such benefit without regard to whether he is a resident.”

“Presumably, the intent of this law was to give states the nominal choice of whether or not to grant illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates, while making the financial consequences of granting in-state tuition rates to illegals so onerous that, as a practical matter, no state would ever choose to do so,” said a longtime state education policy analyst who asked to remain anonymous.

But the California State Legislature, chock full of lawyers, pulled a fast one and found a legal way around this law by granting in-state tuition to anyone, regardless of residence.

The Legislature declared that any illegal immigrant who attends a California high school for at least 3 years and graduates, files an affidavit declaring that he has filed, or will file, an application for U.S .citizenship, has complied with both conditions of federal law:

1. It based eligibility for the in-state tuition benefit on criteria other than residency, and;

2. It granted the in-state tuition benefit to all U.S. citizens and nationals pursuant to the same criteria applied to illegal immigrants.

“The Legislature had accomplished precisely what the federal law was intended to prevent:  extending eligibility for a postsecondary education benefit to illegal immigrants while excluding U.S. citizens who were not California residents from being eligible for this same benefit,” the education analyst said.

The other damning aspect of the Dream Act is that it could actually reduce the amount of scholarship funds available for legitimate residents of the State. Allowing any undocumented student to qualify for financial aid greatly decreases the availability of Cal Grants and other financial aid for the more than 100,000 legal students who apply annually.

The California Dream Act will reward illegal behavior, place a new financial burden on California taxpayers, and cut legal state residents out of the education system.

The University of California already awards scholarships funded from a mix of public and private sources. There is nothing in AB 130 to prevent the university from awarding scholarships currently funded by private sources to illegal alien students, thereby reducing the amount of privately funded scholarship aid to legitimate, legal residents.

Can’t Get Legal Jobs

Last year, Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton, expressed concern during a legislative committee that the state of California was making substantial financial investments in the futures of people who legally cannot get a job after graduation. With the federal government cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, California Legislators are playing with fire by increasing the numbers of college educated illegal immigrants.

The CSU Undocumented Student Resource Guide provides information and access to scholarships. So does the “California Nonresident Tuition Exemption Request for Eligible California High School Graduates,” which begins the process to match up illegal immigrant college students with an amazing array of grants, scholarships and fee waivers for college tuition.

The resource guide even offers free legal advice in the “Know your Rights!” section. This section also tells students who feel discriminated against “to contact the controversial Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)  for assistance.”

Also included is a section on obtaining scholarships, which “are open to students regardless of immigration status.”

The bill was pushed through the Legislature by Democratic Hispanic legislators claiming “fairness for students.”

What does not square is that the governor has been making drastic cuts to police, fire, health and other front-line services because the state is running out of money. But this law will only add to the financial burden of the state’s college and university systems.

Brown is still paying back the special interest groups that put him into office. But what is more suspect is that there is pending federal legislation that would solve the legal problem for illegal college students: The “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act” would grant conditional legal status to qualifying illegal youths brought here before age 16 if they go to college or enlist in the military.

It appears that Brown knows what he is doing, while the rest of us are only now becoming aware of the grand plan.

— Katy Grimes