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Fresno student body president admits to being illegal immigrant

November 18, 2010

The student body president at California State University — Fresno has been forced to publicly admit that he is an illegal immigrant. [Associated Press]

Pedro Ramirez, 22, was outed by the campus newspaper Tuesday after the staff received an anonymous tip. Ramirez had previously told campus officials last June that he was reluctant to reveal his status.

“I don’t want this issue to be about me,” Ramirez told The Associated Press Wednesday. “This is a big, big issue that should have been addressed a long time ago. My goal is to bring awareness to that.”

Ramirez, who has a dual major in political science and agricultural economics, came to the U.S. with his family from a small community in Jalisco, Mexico, when he was 3. He went on to become valedictorian of his high school class in nearby Tulare County.

He said didn’t know he lacked proper immigration papers until high school, when he told his parents he planned to join the military before applying to college and they told him he wasn’t a citizen.

Ramirez benefits from a law, upheld last week by the California State Supreme Court, that allows all California residents, regardless of immigration status, to qualify for in-state tuition rates.


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Gawd, pipe down you sanctimonious fools. How do you know he has broken any rules?

Did any of you go to school when you were younger? Didn’t your school ever educate you about the rise of the Nazis, how they slowly but surely make their insidious aspirations ‘legal’ and then simply enforced the law?

What a bunch of pompous asses we have. Blaming the smallest offenders-why don’t you go after the ones who really rip you off to the tune of billions/year? The corporations, the war profiteers, bank and wall street execs-these are your enemies, they will stop at nothing in their endless pursuit of your money. Our jobs, national security, and environment are all in peril because of the fat cats, not the so called ‘illegals’. You who cannot stop harping on this subject are dupes of the power structure that has historically throttled our society with lies and division.


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Illegal is illegal is illegal. It will never BE “legal” by it’s very definition, no matter how you pretty it up. Here’s a question: if Pedro is so honorable and worthy of praise, WHY did Pedro not become a citizen when he turned 18??? Remember, he is STILL an illegal. The difference is, he has KNOWN he was illegal since high school and, given the chance, he didn’t opt to become legal when he was of “legal” age to do so. Why?


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O)ne question:

If he is so ethical why didn’t he try go back and help his own people in his own country?

This whole issue of someone supposedly getting ethics after the law is already broken irks me. How many other laws or rules did he break in order to get his way?


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Well… well… well…


I guess we ‘rules’ are for the ‘other guy.’ So, buds, if you don’t like the rules, then change them … but making exceptions for those you like isn’t a good idea either. I really don’t know what he’s bragging about… that he beat the system?


It doesn’t take a pea for a brain, even Yosemite Sam should get this… that this guy most likely broke a lot of other rules to get as far as he did… I am sure he even votes.


BTW, he’s not the first guy to get elected without a birth certificate. ;)


Have fun,


Roger Freberg


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Sounds like a great kid and an asset to the CSU system.


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I wonder if I can write him off my taxes as a dependent???

Seeing how my tax dollars are being used.


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People use to make blanket statements about the Jews taking all the jobs. How did that work out?


We live in the richest country with the worlds biggest economy in the the state with that countries largest economic base which is in itself the seventh largest economy in the world and there is no money for schools, roads, health care, firemen, cops and nurses. The rich pay no taxes and take 90 percent of the pie home mean while you cant see that everytime you have to pay an increase in DMV fees, everytime you have to pay to play with a fire departmnt your taxes already fund, everytime the city has to make its budget by squeezing you by the nickel and dime with parking meters and new fees, everytime it costs another 50 cents to get on the bus those are all tax increases. While we working people struggle to do what use to be two or three peoples jobs the rich get richer running home with difference and you simpletons just keep on blaming it on the Mexicans, What a bunch of suckers


If you look around at all this and think to yourself that its the poorest people in the western hemisphere that are the ones ripping you off, well then youre nothing but a fool


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Right on, welfare for the rich and corporate control of everything are what we should be talking about-but of course the fat cats have us arguing over a few immigrants. The right wing media machine has done a great job in deflecting the conversation from where it should be.


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No, we use to live in the richest country and California use to be the seventh richest economy. We use to be #1 in cotton but now we follow India and China, we use to have a car industry now we import more than we product, we use to be a leader in steel production now we don’t have any, we use to have a manufacturing base and now we import, import, import… Our government has us in debt up to our eyeballs, unions with all their control and pension plans have corrupted our local governments, immigration is estimated to be 20 million, with 12 million in California, we have no money for education or infrastruction, unemployment at its worse since the depression and everyone just wants to tax tax tax so everyone can pay more so others can get more. And to add insult to everything else, I read today where the Sierra Club has gotten into bed with the organization formerly known as ACORN. All very discussing and depressing.


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Congrats to Robert for his success, and being a great role model. NOW, let’s not forget that he is the exception for illegal immigrants. With all that we spent on these programs (school programs, five program, reading programs, school food programs, after school care, free transportation, no child left behind, etc.) I would hope that we have lots of Robert’s. We have 20 million illegal immigrants in this Country and I do not believe for a minute that the majorities of the illegal immigrants have achieved this status. If anything, because monies have rerouted for all these special programs to accomodate the “special needs” I think we have undermined the needs of teaching LEGAL children. I also think we need immigration reform, a right to citizenship for good citizens and then send the rest back across the border (gang members, criminals, unemployed, school dropouts, etc.).


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I assume we are to insert the name Pedro everywhere you have said Robert. :-)


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Yes, I am sorry for that error, it was an innocent mistake!


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Holy crap, what an idiotic comment by Robert1; the young man was his high school VALEDICTORIAN and is now the student body President; do you honestly believe that he is a “free loader” ? Do you realize how much hard work this young man had to put in to become either of those things? And he wants to join the military; how much more honorable could this person be? I am stunned that people can have an attitude like this; as for “a position that should be held by an American citizen”, if any other student had the drive and success that this young man has, they would have been the valedictorian of his class or they would have been elected as student body president at CSU Fresno. You really come across as bitter and I have to wonder what your GPA was in high school, if you even went to college, and if you ever considered joining the military. Pedro Ramirez should be an American citizen, he certainly has proved he can work hard and do well.


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Another free rider taking tax dollars and a position that should be held by a American citizen.


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By a stroke of luck you were born here. Your parents, or theirs, or theirs, were immigrants. Maybe ‘illegal’ immigrants. This guy is a shining example of success after hard work. You ought to be ashamed criticizing him from your arrogant position.


What have you done with your life, for this country? I’m proud of Pedro and wish him well. You, I would consider expelling from our shores.


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hotdog,

No other country would take trailer trash like Robert1. Pedro is a shining example of Americanism, despite his status. Unfortunately not all “undocumented” aliens are that way. We need to address the immigration issue, control the borders and the flow of human traffic. But Pedro’s case is unique and should not be used to promote illegal immigration.


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Yep it is the people who were here when we arrived that are the problem, and their kids too.


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Is this supposed to make sense? Do you mean the real Native Americans? Is this tongue in cheek talk or are you on another planet?

Whitey came here and killed most of the natives, declaring them ‘savages’. We then stole their land, over populated it with our kind and then despoiled it. Now we have the audacity to declare others ‘illegal’.

Here is a shining example of a young person making the most of his life and some of my fellow amerikans are upset he is even here. Amazing, I can only suppose those are the same dysfunctional people that imagine Palin in the white house instead of the junk yard (sorry for insulting the many find junk yard workers we have, many of you are miles ahead of that idiot).


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I can see by your response you have a hatred problem, don’t be a hater. It’s lying liberals like you that use words like “undocumented” instead of illegal. And while I don’t live in a trailer you just insulted a whole class of people that live in trailers. Unlike you i have contributed significantly to people that need to live in affordable housing with the addition of a 40 plus unit that houses only income qualifying people,many I point out that are of the Hispanic race.


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It was not a stroke of luck,you must be speaking from experience. My family emigrated to the U.S.A. the legal way and settled in the Dakotas and lived in mud huts until they could scrap money together to build a log shack above the subterranean mud hut.

My dad came to California with $50 and a suitcase with my mom and oldest brother in tow.

See we did it the old fashion way,legally and by ourselves. No government assistance or hand outs,worked our asses off and paid our taxes.You can not say the same for these people,and I don’t give a rats a$$ if he was a kid when they brought him here. He needs to take that up with his parents.


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