On May 5, Mass. State Represenstative Marie Parente read the following statement to the legislature on behalf of the members of 9/11 Families for a Secure America

The members of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, representing the families of over three hundred of the victims of the September 11 attacks, ask you to defeat House Bill 1230 that would grant instate tuition to illegal aliens.

The murders of our loved ones were made possible by this country’s failure to enforce its immigration laws. That failure to limit entry by illegal aliens or to attempt to screen illegals for the purpose of keeping out criminals and terrorists led directly to the 9/11 attacks and the murders of our family members.

The 9/11 mass murderers could carry out their conspiracy because there are 10 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the US. Those illegals acted as an ‘ocean’ in which the terrorists could hide in plain sight. That huge population of “undocumented” people guaranteed the hijackers that once inside our borders they could reside here and plan their attacks without any risk of detection. When there are millions of illegals living in communities and moving around the country an additional nineteen are not noticeable…until they murder 3,000 people.

Illegal aliens come to the US and are able to remain here only because they know that they can get employment (at low wages to replace citizens), get free health care, free K thru 12 education for their children, housing, etc. Illegals also know that banks will accept dangerously unreliable consular cards as a basis for transacting business and that some states will give them drivers’ licenses.

Without these incentives no alien would want to violate our laws and illegally enter or live here.

House Bill 1230, offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens, provides an additional incentive to illegals to remain here and will serve only to perpetuate this population of law violators and encourage more to join them. It will preserve the population of lawbreakers that provided concealment for the terrorists.

If government itself grants this sort of license to an illegal population, in the process it gives the same license to terrorists to live among us, travel, plan, open bank accounts, explore Logan Airport for security weaknesses, and ultimately to commit mass murder.

A nation that permits millions of people to openly violate its laws and actually grants these lawbreakers nearly all the rights of citizens, is one that INVITES terrorism.

If you pass this bill your message to millions of potential illegals around the world is clear: “Come to the US. The law in America means nothing. Come live here, work here, bring your parents, in-laws, cousins. Americans don’t care. When you come as ‘undocumented’ immigrants of course we won’t know anything about your real identity, but that doesn’t matter because, if some of you, hiding among the vast communities of other illegals, carry out another 9/11 style attack that’s all right because that’s part of the price of having cheap labor.”

Legislators should also be aware that enactment of House Bill 1230 will put the Commonwealth in direct violation of federal law. Enactment of a similar bill in 2004 in Kansas has resulted in a lawsuit by out of state students in the Kansas public higher education system for refund of the difference between instate and out of state tuition rates. Their claim for damages, for only one year, is thirty-seven million dollars in a system considerably smaller than the Commonwealth’s.

House Bill 1230 will have one other disastrous effect. Because the space at Massachusetts’ public colleges is limited, the very people who are most dependent on low cost higher education, the poor, will be the ones to bear the burden of this bill. The wealthy will be able to afford to send their children to private schools. However, parents of children from Roxbury and other low income neighborhoods, denied admission in order to make room for illegal aliens, will not be able to pay those costs, and it is these children who will pay the price for this ill-considered legislation.

The damage that House Bill 1230 would inflict on the taxpayers and the poor of the Commonwealth is considerable, but we, as relatives of the victims of 9/11, ask you most of all to remember that illegal immigration and terrorism are problems that cannot be separated. We say to the General court, on behalf of thousands of terrorism’s victims and their families: you can help begin the process of ending illegal immigration and the concealment it provides for terrorists by defeating House Bill 1230.

On the contrary, if you pass this legislation you are stating that the Commonwealth encourages illegal aliens and the unidentified terrorists among them to continue to ignore our laws.

We hope that you will remember the 3000 dead of 9/11 and vote to defeat House Bill 1230

Board of Directors, 9/11Families for a Secure America

Bruce DeCell (Det.Sgt. NYPD, Retired), Father in law of Mark Petrocelli, age 29

Bill Doyle, Father of Joseph, age 24, WTC North Tower
Lynn Faulkner, husband of Lynn, WTC South Tower

Peter Gadiel Father of James, age 23, WTC, North Tower 103rd Floor

Grace Godshalk Mother of William R. Godshalk, age 35 WTC, South Tower, 89th Floor

Joan Molinaro Mother of Firefighter Carl Molinaro

Will Sekzer, Detective Sgt (ret’d) NYPD Father of Jason, age 31, WTC, North Tower, 105th Floor

Diana Stewart Michael Stewart WTC