Staff Editorial: Saving our future

F rom a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult. …" That's what Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 2005 decision abolishing juvenile executions. It's likely a similar thought process that prompted Prince George's County Councilman Will Campos (D-District 2) to argue for expanded access to higher education for undocumented immigrants, saying, "students who were brought here illegally by their parents at a young age should not be penalized."

But not everyone is so welcoming of academically aspiring illegal immigrants. Brad Botwin adamantly opposes legislation that would grant in-state tuition rates to undocumented students. Botwin is the director of "Help Save Maryland," an organization whose website argues, "the presence of illegal aliens in Maryland poses an unacceptable economic burden and physical threat to our communities. …" But illegal immigrants can't be written off as a drain on the economy, and certainly not in the context of higher education. Quite the opposite, in fact: Immigrants may very well be our economic - and national - salvation.

International journalist Fareed Zakaria argues that the dominant position of the United States results directly from the quality of our higher education, combined with our demographic compared with Europe and much of Asia. While those countries have stagnant and aging populations, the U.S. continues to have an expanding (and younger) population. That growth, Zakaria says, is largely attributable to continuing immigration.

The importance of recent immigrants to U.S. technology is immense - foreign students and immigrants make up half of science researchers in the U.S., and received nearly half of all doctorates awarded in science and engineering. By 2010, Zakaria projects that foreign students will receive more than half of all doctorates awarded in any subject in the U.S., and nearly three out of every four awarded in the sciences.

The state has staked its future on continued success as a technology corridor. The university has staked its global prestige on excellence in the sciences. It is shortsighted and self-destructive to effectively bar immigrants from our institutions of higher education by not offering in-state tuition, when they are so clearly essential to sustaining and expanding our successes. We hope that both state and federal legislators recognize these facts, and truly act to help save Maryland.