EDUCATE THE ILLEGAL - TAKE FROM THE VETERAN
Because my wife is active duty Air Force and stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, I temporarily reside on that military installation in New Mexico. But, I am not a New Mexico resident. I am a retired Air Force officer.
For military pay purposes, my wife and I are Illinois residents. I do not currently earn any wages in the State of New Mexico and therefore I would assume have no need to pay New Mexico state income taxes. Well, apparently this is not the case. When we had your 2003 taxes prepared we were notified that New Mexico was going to tax my military retirement, even though, as I said, I am an Illinois resident. When my wife finally retires from the Air Force and should we choose to permanently reside in a state other than Illinois, then I will become a resident of that new home state. I will also pay any expected state taxes.
Adding insult to this situation, there was a front-page article in the Albuquerque Journal telling how a violator of US emigration laws, is also cheating the taxpayers of New Mexico. It would appear that the University of New Mexico (UNM) is not only knowingly allowing an illegal alien from Chihuahua, Mexico to attend classes, but she is also allowed to do so at in-state tuition rates, which are $1656 per semester. Out-of-state students pay $5977.
So, besides being a federal law-breaker she is a bilker of state funds. She is one of forty of these undocumented felons who continue to steal New Mexico money. Even if they were legally in this country, they all still owe the state $4321. When you multiply that by forty, the criminals-without-paperwork have shorted New Mexico $172,840. That large chunk of money would go a long way to help some "real" New Mexican students get an education.
What amazes me is there are paid University officials who know this is going on. I would assume these officials are New Mexico State employees; as such, they are required to uphold and support the enforcement of New Mexico State statutes and Federal laws. It would appear that state employees have been knowingly allowing illegal aliens to break the law and cheat the University system since 1998. My research indicates this looking-the-other-way, possibly has been going on since the early 1980's. If this is the case then the $172,840 figure is extremely low.
I spoke to Cynthia Stuart who is the Director of Admissions for UNM. She advised me that the decision was made to offer instate student status to illegal aliens whom have graduated from a New Mexico high school, even though it was known, to the University admissions process that the student was in the United States in violations of federal immigration law. She expressed the reason, was the student's families were already in New Mexico; therefore the State should try to help the children of these parents who knowingly violate our borders.
Stuart stated that a new "legal" student has to declare any criminal history at the beginning of the admissions process. For the safety of the campus, any documented violations of the law can be used to deny a person admission to UNM. But, if the student is an undocumented felon-alien, UNM will not hold that against a potential new customer. This is not a case of don't-ask-don't-tell. In this situation UNM does ask, but they still don't tell. They surely do not tell our Federal immigration enforcement personal; who by the way are now part of the new Department of Homeland Security.
There is a connection between illegal entry into the United States and terrorist activities in this country. The young woman in the Journal article is Ms. Lopez. Couldn't the police on the University campus track this person down and start the process to stop this flagrant violation of the law? If someone were to put a gun in your face and demand $5977, declaring the taken money was only going to be used for their college education, I am sure you would still call the police. The Federal authorities already want Ms. Lopez, but she lives openly in New Mexico society and takes what ever she can from that society. Allegedly her parents are also in this country in violation of our laws.
I have to assume in Mexican society children are like children in the United States. They observe their parent's bad habits and in this case, the continued breaking of laws. They wrongly believe these practices are correct and to the detriment of our society, imitate their parents. So now unfortunately we have two generations of law-breakers illegally residing inside this country.
A point of interest, to out-of-state students; besides paying the higher tuition fees (unlike Ms. Lopez) a new, New Mexico tax law is in effect. Once you have lived in this state (while attending school) for over 185 days you are required to pay New Mexico income tax. You are still an out of state residence and must pay the higher tuition. You just get to pay twice. All the while Ms. Lopez and her merry band of scofflaws get to happily perform what amounts to, sanctioned armed robbery without a firearm. I am sure Ms. Lopez will live a much better life now that she has her excellent New Mexico, college education. Is she going to take her new talents back home to Chihuahua and help improve things there or is she going to continue to violate this nation's laws?
Where is the integrity of the University of New Mexico administration, faculty and staff? What other laws are they blatantly allowing to be broken on that campus? The money that has been allowed to be highjack by Ms. Lopez and company would have helped a large number of New Mexico veterans, many of them Gulf war combat veterans, improve their education and their lives. These New Mexico veterans did something for this state and our country, not just take from it - like a thief in the night.