Law of unintended consequences
By - on April 12, 2017
Was the Gardenhire/White In-state Tuition for Illegals bill a Trojan Horse for deportation?
After the stunning defeat of the illegal tuition bill in the House Education Administration & Planning Committee, some members quietly (since doing so publicly would be politically incorrect, ya know) voiced concerns the legislation offering of taxpayer-subsidize college tuition to children of illegal aliens was poorly crafted and could expose the parents of thousands of illegal aliens to rapid deportation.
Seems that the forms that every student must fill out for college admission contains detailed information on the names, addresses and financial situation of those who are responsible for paying the bills for individual students. If the parents are illegal, this application process could serve as a roadmap to the physical location of thousands of illegals and possibly their places of employment, making them ripe for a visit from ICE agents.
The universities, whose main goal is to fill the seats with paying customers, have tried to quietly reassure legislators that that information would remain confidential.
Democrat legislators were deeply worried that under the Trump Administration, immigration authorities would find a way to blow through that confidentiality faster than Lois Lerner killed conservatives' tax applications. They had reason to be concerned.
But we here at RTP think the Dems were just being paranoid, since they all appear to be suffering from TDS (Trump Delusion Syndrome). Still, in a rush to bully his legislation through, Sen. Gardenhire presented a poorly-drafted bill that could have had huge consequences, unintended or otherwise.
Regardless of the reasons, the defeat is a HUGE win for Rep. Judd Matheny and the Conservative Majority Caucus. If you don't think committed conservatives can make a difference, just ask Paul Ryan what happened to his lousy ObamaCare "repeal" bill.
Typically, the liberal Tennessean called the vote a "brutal defeat" for those who think Tennessee taxpayers should underwrite tuition for illegal aliens. Brutal? We didn't see and truncheons or firehoses being used – just public debate.
For the folks at the Gannett/USA Today Tennessean, we use a favored chant from the Left:
"THIS is what Democracy looks like."
Live with it.