Letters: Non-citizen student shouldn't stay

Federal officials temporarily delayed deportation of an illegal immigrant student attending Stony Brook University ["Student wins stay for a year," News, Oct. 2]. This sends an unfortunate signal to current and would-be illegal immigrants.

The student, Nadia Habib, was brought to the country from Bangladesh at 20 months old, illegally by her parents. She attended a prestigious high school and now attends a taxpayer-supported SUNY college, in a pre-professional pharmacy program. The college seat she occupies rightfully belongs to an American student.

Evidently, in the years following Habib's arrival here, her parents felt no need to rectify her, or her mother's, legal status. Her personal situation is unfortunate, but it is the result of her parents having gamed the system, and American taxpayers and students are the losers. Multiply this situation a million times.

At some point, we must acknowledge the reality that the United States cannot support or educate all the millions of Third World people who would like to come here. Failure to enforce our laws is hurting our own citizens. We must question why Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) felt a need, other than politics, to support those clearly in violation of U.S. law.

Leslie Dimmling, Garden City
 

What kind of message are we sending as a country? We allow people to continue to stay undocumented. When is enough, enough? Nadia Habib has been here since she was a year old and now goes to Stony Brook University as an undocumented immigrant. If she can afford to go to Stony Brook, she certainly could afford to pay the fees and start the process to become a citizen.

At least her father has done the right thing by obtaining his green card. If you can't play by the rules, then you need to be sent back to your country of origin.

Ray Jackson, Huntington