COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

The headline on the Glendale Community College mock graduation story Wednesday said it was a fight for student rights, but it’s no such thing (“A fight for students’ rights”). It’s a fight for illegal aliens to get free handouts from American taxpayers.

Sorry, not illegal alien, “undocumented immigrant” — politically correct speak for “illegal alien” and “criminal.” Plain and simple. And they are criminals, make no mistake about it. Illegal alien, remember? Did we forget what “illegal” means?

“Now what?” they asked. I have an answer: Return to your homeland and use your American educations to improve things there.

These criminals whine that after they go through our taxpayer-funded public school systems, which they didn’t pay for, and graduate, they “aren’t eligible for federal or state financial aid that U.S. citizens use to help finance higher education.” Nor should they be. They are here illegally. Of course, they speak as if it’s just them getting denied these funds. How many native-born citizens of this country aren’t eligible for financial assistance?

And more, they complain that “they can’t legally work after they finish school.” Of course not! They are here illegally! You can’t be a criminal and expect to do things by the book.

Let me see if I understand this: They’ve come here illegally and paid no taxes, yet make use of our tax-funded programs like schools, welfare, Section 8 housing, Social Security and others, and then demand a free ride through our colleges and employment in our workforce? How dare these criminals ask for this? How dare they make these demands?

The United States has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists.

Yet with the fiscal impact such immigrants have on our country, they could quite easily be described as economic terrorists. Yet we go out of our way to accommodate them, it seems, with scholarships and benefits programs. We won’t even allow the police to do their job and ask suspected illegal immigrants their immigration status. We give them money, we give them exemption from prosecution — now this? Why are we negotiating with them?

With the country in the economic state it is, we’re now expected to pay for illegal immigrants to go to our colleges? There are literally hundreds of thousands of native-born people in this country out of work or trying to get an education so they might find a job and they can’t get into college. These are people who have done everything right. They were born here, lived here, worked here, have done things the right way, the legal, honorable, decent way. And they’re ignored. Disenfranchised. Forgotten. No one’s helping them. They’re left out.

Yet we’ll kowtow to criminals and bend over backward to help them. We’ll allow them to gather on American soil and demand a free ride from these same poor people who have lost everything, despite being the best Americans they can be.

There was a lot of talk recently here in Burbank about what do about the homeless population. Rather, there was a little talk and no resolution. Where are the rallies for them? Where is the outrage over the injustice visited upon them? Where are the people fighting for jobs and educations for them? What about them? Oh, people are stepping over them to hand some scholarship money to an illegal immigrant.

 JESSE L. BYERS is a Burbank resident.