In-state tuition for illegals would hurt Md. students

At what point should not complying with our immigration laws have consequences ("College bound, but undocumented," Jan. 24)? Assuming that the state university system has a quota for in-state applicants in order to meet budgetary expectations, granting in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants puts the children of legal residents of Maryland at a disadvantage.

Children of illegal immigrants are not being denied a college education by if the state does not grant them in-state tuition. Rather, those students will be charged the same tuition and fees as a student from Virginia or Pennsylvania would be charged. And the state taxpayers would still be subsidizing them.

In tough economic times when it is necessary to rank programs and recipients in order to determine what should be done and who should be helped, it seems to me that legal residents of the U.S. should have preference over those not here legally. Perhaps a need-based loan program to bridge the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition for these kids would be worth looking at.

Howard Levinton, Baltimore