In March, the state senate signed off on the idea to let children of illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition at Oregon colleges, if they attend Oregon high schools for three years and then graduate. This week, the Tuition Equity bill got a hearing before a House rules committee which means... bring out the crazy anti-immigration activists!

None of them are as bad as this guy, but I listened through three hours of testimony and rounded up the best quotes. Check them out—plus a poll and testimony from a 14-year-old kid of undocumented Oregon farmworkers—below the cut.

Jim Alvin:

At a time when our country is in trouble, those that are here illegally are allowed to flood our capitol and hold rallies in Spanish and patrol the halls as though they are in full control of the capitol, while they demand more of our taxpayer dollars.

Fred Yates

There is no moral, ethical, legal or logical reason why for why the citizens of the United States and Oregon should pay for the education of children whose parents broke the laws of our nation and continue to do so daily... This bill is an attempt to right some perceived wrong by mandating yet another wrong. It's creating a special, protected, minority class of illegal foreigners. Why should we the taxpayers be coerced into paying $70,000 to anyone to attend college? This is redistribution of wealth, plain and simple.

Rosemary Scott ( "a legal resident of Oregon for 50 plus years")

From their interest in our state, illegal immigrants have been taken advantage of Oregon's generosity through the many welfare programs available, including free education. Still, at great expense to taxpayers, private corporations, and businesses, we accommodate those who do not speak English by instructions in their native language or special symbols.

Lyneil Vandermolen

SB742 is a model of inconsistency and subterfuge. The promoters claim it's for kids, but it subsidizes legal adults... It's as much to the benefit of illegal immigrants who came to the US in middle school as infants... The fix is in on American citizens.

I do not believe that the American citizen should be pushed aside for the benefit of any foreign national. I do not understand how that can be justified in any way.

And now, a message from 14-year-old Alicio Reyes:

I was brought to the US by my parents when I was three years old. I am here through no choice of my own, it's not my fault my parents brought me here. I'm just a kid, but smart enough to know I want to go to college someday. Unfortunately, the difference between me and the other kids in Oregon is that I'm undocumented. Most students are taught to dream and promote their future. I can see my future, but I'm being told that I don't have one. One of my favorite thing to do is go to the public library and read about astronomy. Did you know that our universe is always expanding and infinite at the same time? ... My parents are farmworkers, every day they wake up at 5am to go to work. I live in fear that they will not come home... I want to continue my education after high school, I want to have a future where I can make something of myself... To me, my parents are like stars. Before a star dies, it blows up into a red giant. The stars sacrifice themselves to make new life, just like my parents are doing for me now.