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Colorado Democrats plan to take another run at a bill that would provide reduced tuition to the children of illegal immigrants by creating a new class of tuition that would not require state subsidies. Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, said the measure, billed as the "Workforce Development and Unsubsidized Tuition Act," is a compromise that would avoid the pitfalls of the four or five previous failed attempts at passing legislation by creating a new, third tuition rate. Miklosi said the act would create educational opportunities for 200 to 500 children of illegal immigrants the first year and thousands more over the...

(snip) Students spent a week visiting national monuments, learning how democratic institutions function. They also met with Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz."She's a very bright student and her sister, Julieta, went last year," Cruz said. "Close-Up gives students the chance to open their eyes to other lifestyles and the variety of opportunities available in other parts of the country." While in Washington, D.C., in mid-June, Ariana visited the Capitol buildings where students had workshops on how a bill becomes a law. She says she "fell in love" with the city and she wants to prepare...

Illegal Immigration: As California issues IOUs to its citizens, another ballot proposition may be brewing to cut off benefits that are draining the state budget. From education to welfare to crime, the cupboard is bare.California is a leader in both government debt and the sanctuary city movement. But as its citizens seek shelter from the economic storm, the question has arisen anew whether its non-citizens and the better life they want takes precedence over its citizens and the better life they are entitled to. In this mother of all recessions, it's getting harder to argue that illegal aliens are here...

DREAM Act Do you think college students who are in the country illegally should be given a path to residency, protected from deportation and eligible for student loans and federal work study programs?

It seems like everyone is getting in on the DREAM Act! On Monday, The Hill reported, “Senate Democrats might be close to 60 votes on a measure that would represent the first step towards immigration reform under President Obama,” and then yesterday, news of the most influential voice emerged from the obscure reaches of media. “I support the Dream Act 100 per cent, in fact, I am fully committed to education, my administration has raised funds to be invested in education because I want more students to have the opportunity to go to college and have better access to resources...

ORANGE – Emboldened by what they believe is growing support in Washington, a group of about 50 students from local universities and colleges marched and at times ran through the halls of Santiago Canyon College today to support their peers who are in the country illegally. Students -- some wearing caps and gowns -- from Cal State Fullerton and Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon colleges kicked off what they said was a string of rallies in support of the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students to apply for legal permanent resident status, protect them from deportation and make...

Students from 19 states yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from California officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges. The 42 plaintiffs say California state lawmakers and the University of California board of regents knowingly violated a federal law enacted in 1996 that says any state that offers discounted in-state tuition to its illegal aliens must provide the same lower rates to all U.S. citizens. California has a "unique" statute barring discrimination on the basis of geographic origin, said lead attorney Michael J. Brady. Some students in the...

House Appropriations Committee Rejects Border Security, E-Verify Amendments During a markup of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 supplemental spending bill, the House Appropriations Committee last Thursday rejected two amendments that sought to enhance border security and protect American jobs. The first amendment, offered by Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Hal Rogers (R-KY), contained several provisions aimed at strengthening the integrity of the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) offered an amendment that would prevent jobs created by the supplemental from being taken by illegal aliens. (Congressional Quarterly Committee Coverage, May 7, 2009). Rogers' amendment sought to redirect $200 million...

The College Board - the group of over 5600 educational institutions that administers the SAT - has released a report advocating for the anti-American DREAM Act. As detailed at that link, that bill would let the illegal aliens covered under the bill take college educations away from U.S. citizens. The CB's report is available here, and an AP report is here. If you want to do something about this, the single most effective thing you can do is to form a local group to go to appearances by those who support the bill and then ask them the question at...

Passage of the DREAM Act will not only exponentially increase the number of illegal aliens entering the United States but it will instantly grant amnesty to millions of young illegal aliens already here and confer on them such advantages as in-state tuition and social welfare benefits. Taxes will escalate even further for such things as bankrupt public school districts, insolvent hospitals and overcrowded prisons. We are, in effect, advertising for more illegal aliens by promising them even more extensive rewards for illegal behavior.

While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. Mr. Obama will frame the new effort — likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue — as “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system,” said the official, Cecilia Muñoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House. Mr. Obama plans to speak publicly about...

Late last week we learned several pieces of our opponents' strategy for this year: The Los Angeles Times reported that foundations controlled by billionaire George Soros and others have put together an $18 million war chest to push through a GENERAL AMNESTY this year. The "Dream Act" amnesty for illegal alien high school grads has been reintroduced. The open borders crowd expects this least offensive (to some people) amnesty to break NumbersUSA's eight-year perfect record on defeating amnesties. An aide to Harry Reid told the Los Angeles Times that the fix is in: "comprehensive immigration reform," which we know to...

Proponents of the DREAM Act insist that the purpose of the bill is to ensure that the children of illegal aliens—who were brought here illegally through no fault of their own and shouldn't be penalized for the sins of their parents—have an opportunity to go to college. After all, shouldn’t every child have a chance to better himself by getting a good education? What its supporters don't tell you, though, is that the DREAM Act would award amnesty to virtually any illegal alien under the age of 35 who first entered the United States before the age of 16, has...

SB799, the Arkansas in-state tuition for illegal aliens bill, is on the Senate agenda for Friday April 3rd for the afternoon session. They are trying to sneak this bill through just like they did during the Senate Education Committee. We need calls, emails, and as many activist to come by the Arkansas Capitol. Last time, the AR Senate started at 1:30pm and SB799 was behind about a dozen bills and didn't get reached until around 4:00pm. This time, it will probably be up around 2:00pm or so. Here is the link to the bill from the AR legislature: www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009=SB799

Oakland — Honoring the memory of civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, about 30 students and other activists marched down International Boulevard today demanding rights for immigrant students. "The families of undocumented students pay taxes and make an enormous contribution to our nation's economy and prosperity, yet their sons and daughters face the same kind of discrimination that young black students experienced in the old Jim Crow south," read a statement from By Any Means Necessary, the organization that held the march. The Federal DREAM Act, which would give those students access to financial aid, was reintroduced last week, as was...

The sponsor of a bill to give illegal immigrants in-state tuition says the legislation won't move forward until it becomes clear whether Congress is taking similar action nationally. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said he wanted to see the latest draft of the so-called DREAM Act, which would give illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children ... Out-of-state tuition can often be two to four times as much as the in-state rate. A Senate education committee approved the bill after a contentious hearing, but Romer's bill hasn't hit the floor of the Senate chamber yet. But Romer said the...

A bill to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state college tuition may have the best chance of passing in years because of the support of some key Colorado Republican businessmen. The latest effort, pushed by state Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, would allow illegal immigrants ... to get the in-state tuition rate at state colleges and universities, which would save the undocumented students thousands of dollars. The bill is scheduled to get its first committee hearing Thursday. A bill passed last year clarified that U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are Colorado residents and thus eligible for in-state tuition. Romer's bill...

The debate over offering in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants is making its way through the state Capitol again... It's the fourth time this decade Colorado's Legislature has taken up the issue, which crosses party lines. Democratic Sen. Chris Romer, the bill's sponsor, said he hopes lawmakers see it as an educational and economic matter instead of an immigration issue. Ten states have passed legislation since 2001 granting in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements. Those states include California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Oklahoma and Texas. New Jersey has tried several times.

A bill proposing to grant in-state tuition to all Colorado high school students, including illegal-immigrants, was introduced Friday by Sen. Chris Romer. "For us to be an economic success, we need to make sure all these kids can get into college," said Romer, D-Denver. "And right now a small number of students can't go to college because their immigration status." "I firmly believe we shouldn't punish children for the decisions of adults," Romer said... Romer's argument may be more likely to succeed in these trying economic times. In fact, he's already touting support from Republican businessmen around the state, including...

Even as the illegal alien advocacy lobby is frantically trying to spin the election of Barack Obama as a mandate for a sweeping amnesty, they have all but conceded that the economic crisis and worsening unemployment have probably doomed their efforts. They've set their sights on the more modest goals of achieving amnesty for segments of the illegal alien population and using those to leverage further concessions down the road. Advocates for illegal aliens believe that the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act offers them their best hope to enact a mini-amnesty. The DREAM Act would confer...

Carried into the United States in her mother's arms, Maria became a criminal when she was just over 2-weeks-old. Of course, she did not know that at the time. Maria found out that she was an illegal immigrant when she began applying to colleges at 17, and told herself that if she was unable to gain U.S. citizenship by the time she was 30, she would leave the country forever. Now 22-years-old and a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, Maria, who is still undocumented, said that she tries not to think about her lack of citizenship and the obstacles...

Immigrant rights’ groups in Wisconsin say they’ll try again next year to get Congress to pass state educational residency status for illegal immigrants. The proposed DREAM Act failed in both Congress and the Wisconsin Legislature in their last sessions. But Sal Carranza of Latinos United for Change and Advancement says Barack Obama would sign such a measure if Congress passes it. It would let immigrants who graduate from U.S. high schools be eligible for in-state college tuition, and make them eligible for federal student grants and loans. Carranza says there are hundreds of Wisconsin immigrant students who want to finish...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the California DREAM Act Tuesday night for the second time in two years, once again shutting out undocumented students from state financial aid. The act would have granted undocumented students access to financial aid administered by the UC system, the CSU system and the state's community colleges, including grant, scholarship, work-study and loan programs. Schwarzenegger vetoed an earlier version of the DREAM Act last October. It was first introduced in February by State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles. In his veto message on Tuesday, the governor wrote that it was not appropriate to pass the bill...

Like nine other states, California allows students who attend high school in the state for three years and graduate to pay in-state tuition at public universities. Yet a group of out-of-state parents doesn't like the law. The gripe? AB 540 allows kids whose parents entered the state illegally to pay in-state tuition. So they filed a lawsuit in Yolo Superior Court. Lawmakers passed AB 540 because they want kids who were brought to California through no decision of their own and who have little or no connection with their parents' country to be educated, productive members of society. The Superior...

YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE MKOYAN NEED A REAL CHANCE TO BECOME CITIZENS - You might recall the story of Arthur Mkoyan, who came to Fresno as a 2-year-old from Armenia and graduated as his high school valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA.He was accepted to the University of California, Davis, where he planned to major in chemistry. But his parents were unable to get legal status, so the family was about to be deported to Armenia, a country Mkoyan doesn't know.Happily, Mkoyan got something of a reprieve. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a private bill, temporarily stopping his family's deportation. While the...

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will be using the National Council of La Raza convention, which begins tomorrow in San Diego, as a platform for courting the increasingly significant Latino vote. Convention organizers hope to press the senators for answers on some of the thorniest issues affecting Latinos, among them immigration policies and solutions to the nation's health insurance and mortgage crises. This week, as they prepared to participate in the four-day event at the San Diego Convention Center, some local groups said they were optimistic about what they would hear from the candidates and in convention sessions,...

Remember when he said “The lesson is they want the borders secured first.” That was then. This is now. “Unless we enact comprehensive immigration reform I don’t think you can take it piecemeal,” he explained Monday, answering a question about providing visas for skilled workers. “In other words,” he said, “because as soon you and I start to talk about the highly skilled workers, our agricultural interest people are going to say, ‘Look we need ag workers, too.’ And then somebody’s going say, 'We need the DREAM Act,' and then somebody’s going to say, 'We’ve got to enforce our border.'”...

A website dedicated to students here illegally is offering testimonials on why thousands of folks are pushing for congress to enact the federal Dream Act -- a bill that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to go to college and provide them a pathway to citizenship via college or the military. Thousands of folks have signed a petition on the website asking the three presidential candidates (Obama, Hillary and McCain) to pledge to enact the DREAM Act in their first 100 days in office.

Every Democrat running for president thinks anti-illegal immigration activists are all racists and xenophobes. Do we really need a Republican nominee for president who thinks the same way? Breakout GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, the soft-on-border control former governor of Arkansas, scored a jaw-dropping endorsement Tuesday from Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. Despite a long gubernatorial record opposing employer sanctions and pushing tax-subsidized illegal alien education benefits, Huckabee won Gilchrist's support by unveiling a last-minute, tough-sounding homeland security plan. Trouble is, Huckabee has downright and longstanding contempt for his new bedfellows of convenience. Just two years ago, Huckabee appeared...

In politics, the surest path to irrelevance and powerlessness is to be taken for granted by one party and written off by another. That's the road Latinos are on, thanks to major blunders by the Republicans campaigning for president. In June, all but California's Duncan Hunter blew off an invitation to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. In September, a debate on Spanish-language television had to be postponed after all but Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to commit. After taking criticism for the snub, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney have committed to taking part...

Hillary Clinton -- and the other Democrats running for president -- couldn't possibly have assumed that they would forever skate around the issue of illegal immigration. That notion came to an end in the most recent debate, when the New York senator badly slipped over a question about her state's controversial plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Did she think no one would ask? Democrats had better start dealing with this. Polls show a large majority of Americans, including Democrats, opposed to illegal immigration. They also find that most Americans favor some sort of amnesty for many illegals....

October 2007 may turn out to be the month that immigration became a key issue in presidential politics. It hasn't been, at least in my lifetime. The Immigration Act of 1965, which turned out to open up America to mass immigration after four decades of restrictive laws, wasn't one of the Great Society issues Lyndon Johnson emphasized in 1964. The Immigration Act of 1986, which legalized millions of illegal immigrants but whose border and workplace provisions have never been effectively enforced, was a bipartisan measure unmentioned in the debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. There was no perceptible difference...

In June, the United States Senate kept fighting for more than a month before surrendering to public opinion on the topic of immigration. Having been burned once, the Senators were much quicker to capitulate when the Dream Act, a more limited immigration proposal, was brought up for a vote last Wednesday. The measure failed to generate enough support to even begin a formal debate. That’s fine with most voters. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 22% of voters support the proposal introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The Dream Act would have given legal status to children...

Back in 2002, I wrote this.... "Personally, I’d love to see our government abolish the 14th Amendment. One of the original intents of the Amendment was to make the children of slaves U.S. citizens in an effort to better assimilate them into American society. That good intention has been taken advantage of by people coming across the border eight-and-a-half months pregnant. The United States may just be the only country that allows foreign nationals automatic citizenship for their offspring and the fact that it is obviously now being abused is an understatement." It's comforting to know that Fred Thompson has...

They killed the Dream. Last week, the Senate — pushed by a craven White House — rejected the Dream Act, which would have put high-achieving young immigrants on the path to citizenship. The bill would have granted temporary legal status to illegal immigrants who have graduated from high school with good records and attend college or serve in the military. Let's face it: That's a group of striving, straight-arrow immigrants that this country needs as citizens. But the Senate refused to even allow the measure, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), to come to the floor for debate. After...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson roused himself from his torpor long enough last week to offer an "immigration plan" that is too impractical to ever become reality but isn't designed to. It is nothing more than red meat thrown to primary voters, providing further proof of how far we have come from the quaint conceit that presidential elections offered Americans an opportunity to debate the issues on their merits alone, free of fear-mongering and race-baiting. Illegal immigration is too complex an issue to be reduced to black or white, good or evil, friend or foe. In today's angry, frightened America,...

IT WAS always a long shot for supporters of an immigration measure known as the Dream Act to round up the 60 votes needed to advance the bill in the Senate. But it didn't help matters yesterday when the Bush administration, having supported a comprehensive immigration reform bill containing essentially the same provision, came out against the bill on the morning of the vote. This helped quash the hopes of tens of thousands of promising young people who find themselves, through no fault of their own, in this country illegally. The failure of the Dream Act -- it got just...

The Senate rejected Wednesday an attempt to move ahead with a bill to allow illegal immigrants under age 30 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military. The vote to move ahead on the Dream Act (the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act), got 52 votes, eight short of the 60 needed. Among those voting against moving ahead with the bill were eight Democrats, even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appealed to his majority to back him. But this was yet another case when the Democratic majority...

Update 7:40am Eastern. I’m bumping up the names and numbers of the Senators being targeted by the DREAM-pushers. Start dialing and push them the right way… Hutchison, Kay Bailey- (R - TX) (202) 224-5922 Thad Cochran (202) 224- 5054 Norm Coleman(202) 224-5641 John Sununu (202) 224-2841 Olympia Snowe (202) 224-5344 Jon Tester (202) 224-2644 Richard Burr (202) 224-3154 John Warner (202) 224-2023 Lindsey Graham (202) 224-5972 Judd Gregg (202) 224-3324 Chuck Grassley (202) 224-3744 Tim Johnson (202) 224-5842 Robert Byrd (202) 224-3954 Byron Dorgan (202) 224-2551 Pete Domenici (202) 224-6621 Max Baucus (202) 224-2651 Larry Craig (202) 224-2752 Ted Stevens...

Today, the Senate takes action on the DREAM Act (S.2205). This proposed measure is just another example of Washington's relentless push for amnesty for illegal aliens. By continuing to ignore the will of the American people, these legislators thumb their collective noses at the rule of law. Now is the time for all of us to act! The Democrats are pushing this measure which they say is designed to allow school-aged kids to stay in the U.S. (amnesty) to attend college. The Heritage Foundation describes the bill, saying, "The bill purports to grant amnesty to individuals unlawfully in the United...

WASHINGTON — The Senate flinched again Wednesday on the potent issue of immigration, refusing to consider legislation that would've put thousands of undocumented immigrant students on paths to citizenship. By 52-44 — eight short of the 60-vote majority needed under Senate rules — senators effectively killed the DREAM Act after the Bush administration announced its opposition to it. The bill's defeat came four months after the Senate rejected more comprehensive immigration legislation that the White House supported. Known officially as ``the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act,'' the bill would've allowed illegal immigrants' children who've grown up in...

A bill that would allow some children of illegal immigrants to embark on a path toward legal status stalled in the Senate Wednesday, likely ending the hopes of immigration reformers to pass major legislation on the issue this year. Supporters of the DREAM Act fell well short of the 60 votes needed to end debate on the legislation. In the end, 52 senators, including Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and Joseph Biden (Del.), voted in favor of the DREAM Act, while 44 senators opposed the measure. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has received a...

Dean: Bush Republicans Blocking the American Dream October 24, 2007 Washington, DC - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement today after the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing the DREAM Act and Bush Republicans blocked consideration of the bill in the Senate: [White House Statement of Administration Policy, 10/24/07] "Senator Reid and the Democrats in Congress deserve a lot of credit for working toward solutions for border security and immigration reform. Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves for continuing to stand in the way of both. Children who came to our country...

As we posted on our Home page immediately after the vote, the Senate early this afternoon voted 52-44 in favor of "cloture" on the DREAM Act amnesty. That was 8 votes short of the 60 necessary to allow the bill to even be brought to the floor. SEE VOTE TALLY AT BOTTOM OF THIS EMAIL. WHO SWITCHED TO AMNESTY? WHO SWITCHED AGAINST? For the third time this year, an amnesty failed in the Senate. (Until this year, the Senate was widely considered a lost cause for those of us interested in reducing overall illegal and legal immigration.) I have said...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Legislation to give children of illegal immigrants a path toward legality failed a crucial test vote in the Senate Wednesday, likely putting a final stamp on major immigration measures for the year. Supporters needed to get 60 votes to advance the DREAM Act, which would have allowed illegal immigrants who plan to attend college or join the military, and who came to the United States with their families before they turned 16, to move toward legality. The final vote was 52-44.

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 10/24/2007 Pelosi Statement on Republicans Blocking Consideration of DREAM Act Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after Senate Republicans voted to block consideration of the DREAM Act: “By blocking action on the Dream Act, Senate Republicans prevented a critical first step to address our nation’s broken immigration system. “Our immigration system needs to honor the promise of America and recognize the enormous contributions that immigrants make to our nation. But it must do so in a way that makes our nation safer, protects all workers,...

Democrats’ DREAM Act is a Nightmare Posted on October 24th, 2007 By Fred in Commentaries, Immigration Coyotes are the men who prey on illegal aliens, helping illegal immigrants return to the U.S. over our southern border, sometimes after these immigrants have been deported, two, even three or more times. Apparently our Democratic friends in Congress have learned a thing or two from the “coyotes,� because just when we’d thought we’d sent the illegal-immigrant amnesty bill packing (at least for this year), Congress has ignored the public’s wishes and is trying to sneak what amounts to another amnesty bill through....

A short time ago, I received a SPAM type email from Senator Larry Craig with his legislative update. The interesting part of it was that the subject line said "Listening to Idahoans".Since the immigration debate and later the 'wide stance' bathroom controversy, it was clear the Senator Craig no longer listens to Idahoans. With that, I crafted an email that was rather terse and requested he resign as well as his personal issues are giving the Dems a beating stick in which to trash the Repubs. Below, is his response.October 24, 2007 Mr. Scott Wilhelmi XXXX X XXXXXXXXXXXX Meridian, Idaho...

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) lashed out at Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) on the Senate floor Wednesday, a day after the GOP lawmaker had asked federal authorities to arrest some participants in a staff briefing on immigration. Tancredo, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination on a platform of a tough immigration policy, suspected that some people present at the briefing were in the country illegally. Durbin is sponsoring the DREAM Act, legislation that would allow “certain long-term undocumented immigrant children to go to college or join the military if they meet stringent requirements.” The staff meeting featured individuals who...

The Senate on Wednesday will consider the DREAM Act, a bill that would open a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were brought into the United States as children and who prove themselves as productive members of society. The bill has been derided by conservative critics. But its sponsor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), said the bill has specific safeguards and will not spark "chain migration" of illegal immigrants into America. The bill would grant legal status to illegal immigrants who were brought into the United States as children by their parents. Eligible immigrants must have been in the United...