Aid for legals is good

It is greedy and short-sighted to think that the financial aid given to legal immigrant students will take away resources which benefit U.S.-born students.

Fortunately financial aid, in the form of Pell Grants, will still exist for legal immigrant students. The welfare reform law, which passed a few months ago, had a provision to restrict Pell Grants to U.S. citizens only. Earlier this year, Congress approved a version which would have completely denied them of any sort of aid to fund college tuition.

These students are caught in the cross fire between angry U.S. citizens who are tired of paying tax dollars to public-assistance programs and the illegal aliens who are finding ways to receive that assistance.

Though it is true that these students are not official U.S. citizens, this does not mean that they have to be punished because they were born in another country.

These students are not trying to beat the system. They have taken steps through legal channels in order to gain opportunities which enable them to better their situations.

Many of these opportunities just are not obtainable in other countries.

A majority of the legal immigrant students are here seeking asylum due to unrest in their countries or are sponsored residents who stay with host families while they get an education. Many other countries make it extremely difficult for them to get the proper paperwork to complete the U.S. citizenship process. Some students simply do not have the money.

They want to earn an education but because of the situations in their particular country, they want to come here to be educated.

An education is not something that only the privileged should have. It is selfish for the federal government and its citizens to think that it is.

Until recently, most students could receive loan money simply by applying for it. But because of abuse to the system, students now have to meet certain levels of criteria for this source of aid. There have also been various budget cuts in which aid to students was included.

Americans need to stop trying to find groups of people to blame for this country's internal problems. The problems will exist regardless of whether the immigrants are in this country or not.

The United States ultimately benefits from international students. At the Cal State University level, international studies are an intregal part of the curriculum. These students are our resources to cultivating various types of relations with other countries.