Letters
New Jersey should help immigrant students

A few hundred college-bound students in New Jersey have been waiting for over two years to get a bill passed in Trenton. The in-state tuition bill, when passed, would help these children of immigrants receive an affordable college education and avoid the exorbitant, “out-of-state” fees imposed on them.

Since 2001, nine states have passed laws permitting certain undocumented students who have attended and graduated from their high schools to pay the same tuition as their classmates at public colleges. It is only reasonable to expect that as the fifth-largest immigrant-population state, New Jersey follow their footsteps and enact the long-pending bill into law.

The “mainstream” out-of-state students could choose to pay less for college and attend schools in their home states, but they consciously decided to pay three or four times as much. These immigrant students do not have any such luxury or option. They know their admission into the state’s public institutions is not a free ride: they’d have to work hard to get in on a competitive basis. They also know they don’t qualify for any federal or state loans or grants. Future social and economic benefits brought in by a generation of educated immigrant youth will far exceed the present education expenditure. On the other hand, an uneducated generation of young people with a broken dream would be driven back into poverty, despair, loss of health, or even underground activities, costing us huge economic and political consequences.

Is it the fault of the undocumented immigrants and their college-age children that America can’t keep its education tabs down? In other market-driven countries such as U.K. or Australia, governments have taken long-term, pragmatic measures to prevent higher education costs to spiral out of control. Unfortunately, anti-immigrant organizations and individuals are not shy to exploit these misgivings. Especially since the tragedies of Sept. 11, in a whipped-up, pervasive, anti-immigrant climate, it’s been easy to scapegoat and penalize hard-working immigrants and their aspiring children who have nothing to do with terrorism. The addition of a few hundred resident students to our public colleges is not going to crash our markets. It’s simple math anyone is able to learn and understand.

New Jersey’s lawmakers — traditionally known for their pro-people, equal-opportunity affirmative-action stance — should come forward and pass the instate tuition bill on fast track. In a country that has championed its progresses on human rights, civil rights and liberties, we can’t afford to turn back on our history and create a new era of bigotry and discrimination.

Partha Banerjee

executive director

New Jersey Immigration Policy Network

Newark

State not meeting affordable housing need

Homeowners in New Jersey have benefited from the real estate boom, as skyrocketing home values have provided them with rising home equity. However, the flip side to this equation is that more and more families cannot find affordable housing in New Jersey, which is now the third most expensive state to live in.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that in New Jersey the average household requires a yearly salary of $42,000 to rent a “fair market” apartment. But the state Department of Labor reports that over a third of New Jersey workers earn less than $25,000 a year. Most new jobs created here in the next 10 years will pay near or under that amount.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has not only turned a blind eye to this problem, but has actually continued to cut Section 8 funding for affordable housing on a yearly basis. The federal government’s cuts have offset New Jersey’s attempts to address the need for affordable housing.

New Jersey must address this problem so that the less fortunate are not left behind by our state’s rising property values. Concerned citizens can start by contacting their representatives in Congress and asking them to oppose continued cuts in Section 8 funding.

Eddie Konczal

Monroe Township

Public urged to take back the memorial at the at WTC

I write today in support of the 14 9/11 victims families seeking to take back the memorial planned for the site of the World Trade Center.

On Sept. 11, 2001, I watched from my office in Jersey City as WTC Tower One burned. I tried to reach my sister who was at work in Cantor Fitzgerald, with no success. I watched as the second plane came in and crashed into the second tower, not knowing my nephew was also in there.

Two weeks after the attacks, I, along with my brother, his wife and daughter, were escorted by a New York City police captain into the still-burning ruins of the WTC. We had gone there thinking we could find some peace, some unattainable solace, by being close to the place where our sister and my nephew were killed. Looking around at the wreckage of the WTC, the only thought I could conjure was that I was in hell. At my back was a temporary morgue, to my right and left, and everywhere in front of me crushed, ruined buildings. Nothing was recognizable except for the twisted and burned steel skeletons of the buildings.

My family, along with so many others, did not bring home a body we could lay to rest — my sister’s remains have either not been recovered or cannot be identified. My nephew’s few remains were laid to rest in April 2002.

Where the WTC once stood is hallowed ground. The ashes of those who were cremated are scattered throughout that land.. The WTC site should be used for nothing other than a memorial to those we lost, and to tell the story of the courage, the suffering and the loss everyone in America experienced on that day.

Americans need to speak and let their elected officials know they want and expect a fitting and dignified memorial to 9/11. We shouldn’t have an International Freedom Center that — for an admission fee — will teach visitors about atrocities committed in other places, during other periods in history. What happened on 9/11 in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania is the story that needs to be told for our future generations. Please support the efforts to take back the memorial at the WTC. Visit www.takebackthememorial.com, sign the petition that is circulating throughout the country and send a message to your governing officials. Let them know through your participation that they have been elected by us and they need to be supportive of what we want and expect, and not the other way around.

Matthew Lang

Keansburg