Aid for Students Without Legal Status

President Theodore R. Mitchell of Occidental College pursues his institution’s well-being over California’s by advocating government scholarships for illegal immigrants (“Undocumented Student Aid,” Voices, Dec. 21). Free college education adds another incentive for people to pour in illegally, along with the subsidized housing, medical care and welfare payments that we already offer.

When did scholars forget about overpopulation? If Occidental’s faculty includes a demographer, Mitchell could learn that California’s population now equals a third of Mexico’s and exceeds Canada’s.

He could learn that our state and nation are growing at Third World rates entirely because of recent world-record immigration, despite American families averaging only two children (a no-growth family size) for the past 30 years.

If Occidental’s faculty includes an ecologist, Mitchell could learn that California is already overpopulated to the point that we deforest the land, fish out the ocean, drain groundwater aquifers faster than rain refills them and deplete our farmland’s topsoil. Indeed, Mitchell could learn this by reading The Times.

California needs fewer people, not more. We can achieve this when America’s educational and political elites reduce immigration, allowing America’s small families to end our growth.

Kenneth Pasternack

Santa Barbara

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Mitchell is again seeking to put his hand in the pocket of taxpayers to fund higher education for those who should not be here. It is enough that these illegal immigrants have received a high school diploma at taxpayer expense.

It does not matter that these people see themselves as American; they are not, and it is not our obligation to educate citizens of other nations. While a college-educated workforce might be vital to this state’s economy, people who are here illegally are not legally allowed to work here. For every one of these students occupying a space at a public college or university, a citizen was turned away. Financial aid should be reserved for citizens.

If money is left over it should be returned to the taxpayers, many of whom are paying off their own student loans.

Susan Lieberman

Northridge