Home > Our Blog > Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on Keeping Undocumented Immigrant Youth Out of College

Blog Post

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on Keeping Undocumented Immigrant Youth Out of College

Posted December 20, 2010 by Ted Hesson

After the Senate voted against the passage of the DREAM Act on Saturday, killing a bill that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant youth who attend college or serve in the military, Newsday caught up with a host of players in the Long Island immigration debate and asked for their thoughts.

Among those interviewed was Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, referred to by Newsday as “an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration.”

In regards to the DREAM Act, Levy took issue with the provision in the bill that would have allowed qualifying undocumented immigrant youth to become citizens by attending college.

“Every slot in our taxpayer-funded state colleges that goes to an undocumented student is a slot not going to our youngsters who are here legally,” he said.

A quick fact check: Most public colleges and universities in the US, including those in New York State, are open to students across the globe and welcome the best and brightest students worldwide.

More specifically, you don’t need to be a legal resident to attend a city- or state-funded college in New York State. In fact, New York’s public colleges and universities are prohibited from asking applicants about immigration status.

The DREAM Act, however, would have allowed undocumented immigrant students to apply for financial aid, grants, federal loans, and work study. The bill would have had a positive economic effect overall, reducing the federal deficit by $2.2 billion and increasing federal revenues by $1.7 billion over the next decade, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The economic benefits don’t stop there. See these statistics from the American Center for Progress:

A recent study by the UCLA North American Integration and Development Center estimates DREAM-eligible children and young adults would generate between $1.4 trillion and $3.6 trillion in income over the course of their working lives.

Since the cost of deporting one individual is about $23,148, the cost to deport the 700,000 DREAM-eligible youths would be $16.2 billion.

We already spend $17.1 billion per year to fund our immigration enforcement agencies—a nearly 80 percent increase in five years.

Putting 700,000 youth and young adults on a path to legal status would allow DHS to prioritize its resources on threats, not America’s future.

In the past decade, Levy has routinely turned to immigration as a political rallying point, even while hate crimes against Latino immigrants plagued Suffolk County.

The hostile environment in Suffolk isn’t strictly anecdotal: The Suffolk County Police Department is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for discriminatory policing in regards to Hispanic crime complainants, among other charges.

Tags : dream act, hate crimes, newsday, steve levy, suffolk

Permalink Comments