Immigration debate overshadows military tuition bill

journalstar.com ^ | 4-9-2008 | Nancy Hicks

[stan_sipple]

Though an immigration bill didn’t make it to the full Legislature this year, the issue was debated Wednesday as senators discussed a National Guard education-related bill.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers used the time to correct the record.

Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford used the time to point out the importance immigration will have in legislative races.

And Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek used the time to encourage Congress to work out a humane and compassionate solution for the immigrant issue.

Twenty-eight students — illegal immigrants because their parents brought them illegally to the U.S. — attend University of Nebraska campuses and pay in-state tuition, said Chambers.

That’s 28 students, not hundreds of students as reported by Attorney General Jon Bruning, Chambers said.

“I was waiting for a bill like this to correct false information” offered by the governor and attorney general “as they attempted to whip up the mobocratic spirit,” Chambers said, referring to news conferences Bruning and Gov. Dave Heineman held on their immigration bill.

Bruning “has a size 14 mouth to accommodate his size 12 foot, which he frequently deposits in his mouth,” Chambers said — pointing out that Bruning was the official who “talked about hundreds of students being allowed to attend the university on resident tuition basis.”

Another claim, that these immigrant children get more assistance than is available to a member of the National Guard, is also wrong, Chambers said.

The bill (LB746) on the agenda Wednesday made minor changes to a law that gives National Guard members a 75 percent tuition credit.

Ashford said he is concerned these 28 students may become a defining issue in legislative races across the state, where immigration has emerged as a prominent issue.

“I can’t believe that the defining issue could become whether or not one of the two candidates would prohibit an individual who has attended grade school and high school from going to the university with his friends and paying the same tuition they do,” Ashford said.

He pointed out he will lead a comprehensive immigration study this summer, assessing the situation in Nebraska, talking with community, business and faith leaders, looking at what other states are doing and talking to federal officials.

Sen. John Wightman of Lexington suggested others read a study on Texas that reports illegal immigrants made a $1.2 billion positive net impact in the state. “It wasn’t all expense. They contributed greatly to this society,” he said.

“I do resent it when politicians attempt to make hay out of a serious issue and what they say is totally unjustified,” Wightman said.

Schimek, sponsor of the bill several years ago that gave in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who graduated here, said she hopes Nebraska will be the state of brotherly love and not brotherly hate.

The tuition bill, she said, “was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to preserve for the future.”

“The fact of the matter is Congress has not done a good job of controlling immigration,” she said.

“I hope we can get to the point that we can talk about the problems that unlimited immigration has created and we can seek ways to deal with the immigrants we have in this country in a humane way, in a rational way, in a compassionate way,” she said.

[bajabaja]

So Nebraskans who do not want to pay for the college tuition of Arkansans, for example, are “haters”?

That is the lady legislator’s logic.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>“I hope we can get to the point that we can talk about the problems that unlimited immigration has created and we can seek ways to deal with the immigrants we have in this country in a humane way, in a rational way, in a compassionate way,” she said.<<

IMO this “compassionate way” contributes the the “problems that unlimited immigration has created.”

[stan_sipple]

sen Schimek is the most open borders state senator in the unicameral hands down