Rep. Chris Herrod’s testimony on HB241 Repeal of Exemptions from Non-Resident Tuition on 02/12/08…

I am often amazed at the disconnect we have with what we do with this body.  And how one side of this issue has been able to take compassion.

Over the past year, I’ve been called a foaming at the mouth zealot by KSL, and yet they endorsed Mitt Romney, who vetoed in-state tuition.  Over the past year, I’ve been called a racist, unchristian by the Deseret News, who also endorsed Mitt Romney, who vetoed in-state tuition. I’ve even been called a super-freak by a member of this body who, with all due- respect, has no idea what I’ve done for immigrants, or for people across the sea.

And so since one side is taking compassion, let me argue from an emotional perspective.

Three weeks ago my wife was on this very floor and a member of this body came up to my wife and said “we love having your husband here.  We agree with him on most everything but immigration.  My wife was so upset, because you have no idea how a legal immigrant feels when you talk about compassion.  She calls it discriminatory compassion, because she asked “why don’t you love the people from my native country equally?  Don’t you know that they are suffering?”

Think about it, we are creating innocent victims all over the world because we refuse to enforce our laws. We’re basically saying if you don’t break our laws we’re going to punish your children. My business partner I have here in Utah has three of his siblings that have been killed. The earliest was when he was fifteen, he was shot in front of him.  Most recently his brother and sister-in-law were assassinated on their doorstep.  He had to adopt his niece and nephew to get his kids here.  What do I tell him? He has additional family members who would love to come to this country he is one of those immigrants that has come and has been successful he has the ability to bring someone here illegally and overstay a visa or fly them to Mexico.  What do we tell them? I have a friend that two months ago lost a brother in Kenya they have been refuges there for 5 years trying to come to this country.  What do I tell him?  Do I tell him that he’s foolish for obeying the law?
  As many of you know, I taught overseas.  One of the things that I taught, (was) business and free-market and one of the things that I stressed is that for a free market to grow to it’s greatest potential there has to (exist) the rule of law, because if you have government corruption where people don’t obey the law you don’t get the full value of the market system.

Well, I’m sad to report that while some of those students had the opportunity to come over to UVSC, and one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever heard comes from one of those students that say Chris everything you taught me was wrong.  Students cheat, and they don’t believe in the rule of law here.  After their scholarships were over they had to pay out of state tuition.  And they had to return… So, I ask you, what do I tell those students? What do I tell my wife? Do we love the people of her country equally?
 

I believe this is the greatest country in the world.  And I believe that everybody in the world should have an equal opportunity.  We should not discriminate against Africans or Asians or Indians, and so I would strongly urge you to vote for this bill. 
 

(Some minor editing by Craig Frank)