Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong support of the Gallegly amendment giving States the option of denying public education to illegal aliens. As many of you know. in 1982 the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler versus Doe that. based on the 14th amendment to the Constitution which makes anyone born in the United States a citizen. illegal alien children are entitled to a public and secondary education. This has proved to be a powerful magnet or open invitation. if my colleagues will. to break the laws of this country. However. last November. in ruling against Californias proposition 187 which allowed California to deny public benefits to illegal aliens. a Federal judge said that the authority to regulate immigration belongs exclusively to the Federal Government. In other words. in the absence of Federal action. the State must provide public benefits. including education. to illegal aliens. This amendment is entirely consistent with this decision. Through congressional action. each State would be able to decide whether or not it wants to divert resources away from educating the children of its hardworking taxpayers. In the case of New Jersey. if the State chose this option this would mean having an additional $150 million available to improve public education for the States children of taxpaying citizens. These are the people who are paying taxes to fund State and local education services. Unfortunately. the additional $150 million that could be going toward improvement in school programs and infrastructure to better our childrens education is instead being spent on the children of illegal aliens. This is just plain wrong. Add to this the fact that New Jersey is straining to provide a change in funding that is putting in direct competition urban. suburban. and rural school systems.
Keywords matched
immigration illegal aliens illegal alien