An Arizona state senator has set off a hot debate over illegal immigrants with her public reading of a constituent letter that said most Hispanic students hate America

"Most of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters," said State Sen. Lori Klein on the chamber floor, quoting from a letter by a Phoenix-area substitute public school teacher sent to Senate President Russell Pearce. "They hate America and are determined to reclaim this area for Mexico." Klein, a Republican, was speaking in support of a bill which would require the Arizona Department of Education to collect data on students who cannot prove their lawful residence in the United States in order to better estimate the cost of educating illegal immigrants. "If we are able to remove the illegals out of our schools, the class sizes would be reduced and the students who wanted to learn would have a better chance to do so and become productive citizens," Klein continued, quoting from the teacher's letter without revealing his identity. "Thank you for standing up to this invasion." The teacher behind the letter, Tony Hill, has come forward to confirm details of his experience teaching Hispanic students. Hill said he wrote state legislators after substitute teaching in a suburban-Phoenix public school where most of his eighth grade students were illegal immigrants, and made offensive statements about the United States.