I think this piece on how Arizona's Prop. 300 is keeping illegal immigrant scofflaws from taking advantage of taxpayer-funded social services (like in-state tuition) was meant to make me feel sorry for the criminals. Instead, I just felt warm fuzzies. This is saving taxpayers millions of dollars, and hopefully will induce those here illegally to leave, and others to not come here illegally.

Quoth the lead:

Nearly 5,000 people in Arizona have been denied in-state college tuition, financial aid and adult education classes this year under a new state law banning undocumented immigrants from receiving those state-funded services.

It then provides a breakdown of the numbers and moves into the supposedly tear-jerking personal anecdotes.

Isela Meraz, a Phoenix College student, has been priced out of taking all the classes she wanted. Prices per class shot up to about $600, she said, up from the $250 she was paying pre-Proposition 300. This semester, she will take just one class instead of the four she had planned on.
"I want to learn so many things . . . and become something, and this just puts a limit on me," said Meraz, of west Phoenix. "Our parents have worked this country. And it's incredible to me that people approved this. I just don't understand."

If I may help this lady understand: You and your family broke into this country illegally. You have been taking advantage of programs meant to help Americans. And now you are complaining because the benefits you have de facto stolen by breaking into America are coming to an end. You say of you and your fellow "undocumented immigrants" that "our parents have worked this country." You're right. They have worked America. They've worked it over. They have filled our emergency rooms with people who don't pay for their health care. They have increased the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers on our roads. They have filled our taxpayer-funded schools with their children, dragging down the quality of education for American children. They have raised our illegitimacy rates. They have committed a disproportionate number of crimes (beginning with the crime of illegally being in our nation) and burdened our police, courts and prisons. They have turned neighborhoods into slums. They have aided drug traffickers. They have increased gangs. They have eroded the cultural cohesion of America. And then they (which is to say, you and yours) have the temerity to demand that you not be punished for your crimes against America, to demand that you continue to receive services meant for Americans and and America's invited guests, and to demand that those services increase.

That is why people approved this. It isn't enough, but it's a start.