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I read with great interest the front-page article on June 22 regarding tuition rates for public colleges in Georgia and have only one question: "What part of illegal don't they understand?"
We taxpayers pay for medical services, social services, education services and a whole host of other services too long to enumerate in this letter without very much in return from people who broke a federal law by being here in the first place. Why should we taxpayers continue to pay any tuition because those who are here illegally wish to go to college?
I was a Georgia resident serving in the U.S. Army for 26 years, but not living in Georgia much of the time. I paid school taxes, inter alia, for a lot of years, yet was not able to use the facilities for which I had been paying, except for one year in elementary school and later for college for two of our sons born in Germany, who had to be naturalized when they entered the United States, and for one son born in Georgia.
Our adopted daughter had to carry a "green" card. I wasn't particularly happy about it, but it was the law, so we obeyed it.
The argument that one is just trying to get a better life for his family is not sound to an embezzler who took funds so his children could attend better schools or the individual who stole a loaf of bread because his family was hungry. We are a nation of laws, a republic, and to remain as such, we must obey our laws and punish those who break them, starting with those entering our great country illegally.
There is plenty of room for those who want to come here legally. If the majority of our elected officials believe laws regarding immigration and fees paid by immigrants need to be changed, they should change them, not leave their interpretation to the Board of Regents or the Court System.
To let someone jump the queue does a disservice to those who have followed the rules, and permitting an illegal immigrant to attend a Georgia college, irrespective of what tuition is paid is just plain wrong.
A.R. McCahan
Gainesville