In our state, ’tis the season for political mailers and at our house, we’ve been bombarded. We’re getting it from both sides, and almost all of it immediately hits the trash, but today, this ad sponsored by the Republican Party of Virginia caught my full attention:
In case your eyesight is about like mine, I’ll highlight some of the salient points. This ad is an attack on Virginia Delegate Chuck Caputo. The ad’s headline reads:
Chuck Caputo wants to use our tax dollars to pay for illegal aliens to attend Virginia’s colleges and universities even though there’s not enough space for our own students.
So, we begin with the Republican Party telling us that not only is space in the Virginia public university system rare (a fact that, in my opinion, greatly exaggerates the impenetrability of schools’ admissions criteria), but illegal aliens are taking our tax money and taking our spots at universities. Gasp!
The point is reinforced by language like:
Chuck voted for illegal aliens and against our deserving students…
This statement presumes that the “illegal aliens” had no qualifications and just walked right into class without any proof that they were competent. They were certainly less deserving than our students. Then, next to the sad white girl holding her rejection letter we read in bold green caps:
IT’S JUST NOT RIGHT.
I guess the expected response is, “You’re dang tootin’.” We are then told that despite the popular wisdom of the Republicans and Democrats in the Virginia House, Caputo remained steadfast in his support of illegal aliens in a 3 to 1 vote against his position. So now, Caputo’s fate has been sealed as an outsider, an extremist who wants to give away your money to people who broke into this country to learn.
I am consistently amazed at the lengths political operatives will go to in an effort to foster an already racist “us vs. them” mentality. We all know politics is dirty, but to create hatred toward the children of people who broke the (probably immoral and certainly un-American) law is shameful.
Several years ago, NPR featured a story on two different bills that would help undocumented students go on to college and follow a path to full-fledged citizenship. Many of these kids were brought into the U.S. by adults when they were children and had no say in whether or not they would enter this country. Imagine what life would be like for you if because of mistakes your parents made, you were barred from going to college, regardless of the work you had done academically or in your community to merit admission and affordable access to higher education.
About a week ago, some kid with a clipboard asked me (as I was trying to load wriggly children into my car) if I was voting for Mr. Caputo. I told the guy I didn’t know yet. I think I know now. I may also be keeping an eye on C-SPAN Friday to see if they cover the House and Senate briefings on the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). It’s one of the stalled bills that the NPR report above was talking about…5 years ago.
We have to move forward here with compassion and hospitality. The vitriol and racist rhetoric in our discussions about immigration has to stop. It’s just not right.
Sounds to me like Chuck voted for our deserving students!
The chick in the ad is about to crack a smile. She was probably going out for a drama scholarship.
She really is smiling behind that tissue.
UVA Dramatic Arts Department: REJECTED.
Not to be Ms. Obvious here, but “illegal aliens” is just the most horrible phrase – it strikes me every time I read it – it’s just so deliberately dehumanizing. As if I’m going to listen to anything you have to say about immigrants if you refer to any of them as “illegal aliens.”
Yes, I think in a context like this it’s clearly intended to dehumanize.
I agree, Nikki. Maybe they went NIV on that one, like:
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9
Whereas I prefer the ESV terminology:
“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 23:9
Then again, I have the sneaking feeling that none of the people responsible for that ad were reading that particular verse in either translation.
I can think of a number of verses they weren’t reading….
I double dog dare Chuck Caputo to come live in my city and try to figure out who is an ‘alien,’ legal or otherwise. I bet he would accuse a few people whose ancestors were American citizens long before his own.
Thanks for reading and commenting! PS-Chuck’s the good guy. ;) It’s the Republicans you’re after.
Oops. That’s what I get for multitasking. Point being, I live in a very American, very patriotic, very nonwhite town.
This issue has come up in NC as well. I’ll warn you that I may not have all the details right, because it’s been confusing, and, well, I have things to do. In 2007 the state Attorney General, as far as I can tell as his own bright idea, put the community colleges on notice that they should think about whether admitting undocumented immigrants and granting them in-state tuition was opening them up to legal issues. Or maybe the community colleges started it by asking him. Anyway, the AG ended up ‘recommending’ that they not provide illegal immigrants with in-state tuition benefits, and the community colleges responded by denying admission altogether. Later, the community college board announced the enlightened decision to allow undocumented immigrants to enroll… except they have to pay out of state tuition (so that lawmakers can’t be accused of giving them our tax dollars like Chuck Caputo wants to), which is 140% of the cost to the system to educate them. Of course this ~$8000 cost per year is prohibitive to your average undocumented immigrant seeking a community college education. There are a lot of people who are still angry that the undocumented immigrants have been granted admission at all, even if their attendance would represent a net financial positive. Some lawmakers have vowed to make sure that undocumented immigrants once again be denied access even at the full tuition rate. I think that position shows a special sort of meanness, where as in the VA case it looks like opponents of allowing undocumented immigrants to access community colleges can at least hide behind the argument that taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize ‘illegals’.