Illegal
immigrants
will attend college for free in
Boston
next school year, and Americans will pay for it regardless of where they live.
Last week, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development under Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
announced a $4 million expansion
of the city’s Tuition-Free Community College Plan.
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Previously, it was a targeted program for some recent high school graduates who qualified for Pell Grants. Since illegal immigrants do not qualify for Pell Grants, they were ineligible to use the program.
However, the city is using the money to expand eligibility to all its residents, regardless of their immigration status. Therefore, illegal immigrants will be eligible for the program starting with the fall 2023 semester.
So how will Boston pay for it? Boston will use $3 million from the federal
American Rescue Plan Act
, a $1.9 trillion inflation-inducing boondoggle signed into law by President Joe Biden in February 2021. The other $1 million will come from federal community project funding secured by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill Biden signed into law in March 2022.
Boston’s new policy is another reminder of why inflation-inducing stimulus spending was a colossal waste.
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan may have raised inflation by as many as 3 points, according to a March 2022
study
from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. One particularly egregious provision gave $350 billion to state, municipal, and tribal governments, many of which already had massive surpluses. Many of these governments then spent the money on
quintessential government pork
, such as building statues of professional athletes, boosting DEI programs at liberal colleges, and giving the NAACP free money as their constituents struggled to pay bills.
What Boston is doing is worse than any of those examples. It will give a handout to people who should not be in the country. The city is expanding the welfare magnet, which will attract more illegal immigrants to Massachusetts. It is doing so in the same year when illegal immigrants will become eligible to
obtain driver’s licenses
in the commonwealth.
Although inflation has decreased in the United States lately, it is still
above 6%
thanks to a fiscally irresponsible Federal Reserve and Biden’s big government agenda.
Biden’s wasteful spending has empowered liberal politicians to invent new and creative ways to waste taxpayer money, such as this free college for illegal immigrants scheme.
The government should never encourage illegal immigration, given its many downsides, including crime, terrorism, disease, downward pressure on wages, the fiscal burden, the fracturing of social cohesion, and increased carbon emissions, among other problems.
Instead of slapping taxpayers in the face by wasting their hard-earned money, cities such as Boston should focus on the problems plaguing legal residents, such as crime, homelessness, drug addiction, and poor public transportation. Boston should be educating the public, not illegal immigrants.
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Tom Joyce (
@TomJoyceSports
) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
