redblueamerica.com

Kansas Republicans are going on the offense against illegal immigrants:

The Kansas Republican Party on Friday opened a wide-ranging attack on illegal immigration with a proposed bill that includes repeal of in-state tuition for some undocumented students.

(A Republican official) said the bill will include repeal of a 2004 Kansas law that allows the children of some illegal immigrants to pay the same lower tuition rates as legal Kansans at state universities, community colleges and vocational schools. Under the law, the student must have lived in Kansas at least three years, graduated from a Kansas high school, and seek or promise to seek legal status.

It's stuff like this that makes me suspect the GOP war on illegal immigration is less about principle and more about mean-spirited demagoguery.

Put aside, for second, the fact that there are only 243 students receiving the tuition break -- a pretty small number.

The human reality is this: These kids were brought to the U.S. by their parents; they had no choice in the matter. Many of them basically grew up here, and in every cultural sense that matters, they are Americans. And they want a chance to better contribute to the country they call home.

In Kansas, where I live, everybody knows where the bulk of illegal immigrants live and work. It just so happens that it's the exact same places where there are large-scale meat processing plants. These companies only have to make a token effort of checking out their workforce to keep clear of legal problems. If somebody wanted to make a good-faith effort to crack down on illegal immigration, they would go to the source of the problem: The big businesses. Fine 'em. Heavily. The companies would become much more judicious about checking employee backgrounds, and the job pool that brings immigrants here would dry up.

But that doesn't happen. Instead, the main thrust of anti-immigration efforts in Kansas is to punish the children.