Free Republic

Giving Illegals the Waive by: Bethany Stotts, August 04, 2009 On July 23, the Texas Attorney General wrote the state House of Representatives to explain why Texas provides in-state tuition to illegal aliens. He argued that a) the federal government doesn’t define “postsecondary education benefit” and b) the courts have yet to decide on this issue. Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 holds that “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State...

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...

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...

Wading into the politically charged immigration debate, a group of colleges and universities is urging Congress to give illegal immigrants tuition aid and a path to citizenship in light of efforts in several states to block them. The College Board, made up of 5,000 schools and best known for its SAT college admission tests, released a report Tuesday that cites a need for federal legislation that would open up in-state college tuition, financial aid and legal status to many illegal immigrants in the U.S. Speaking publicly on the issue for the first time, the board is making its push after...

... A blue-ribbon panel convened by Gov. Jon S. Corzine to study immigration matters unanimously supported the proposal [to allow illegal immigrants in New Jersey to pay in-state college tuition] in a report issued last month, and the governor has also endorsed the idea. Meanwhile, a new, more liberal wind blows in Washington. But even the most hopeful immigrant advocates in New Jersey concede that these developments may not be enough to push the proposal, which is outlined in several bills, through the State Legislature, particularly during a recession and in a year in which the governor and the entire...

The Colorado Senate today narrowly rejected a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants in-state tuition after five Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against it...Sen. Chris Romer, Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill, said it was hard for some lawmakers to support the bill in the current tough economic times....,adding that he would try to bring the legislation back next year. The bill would have allowed any student who had attended a Colorado high school for at least three years...to attend public colleges and universities at the in-state tuition rate, regardless of their immigration status.... Republicans argued that 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...

A Colorado lawmaker is proposing giving in-state college tuition to all Colorado high school students, including illegal immigrants. What do you think of the proposal? I agree. The more kids going to college the better. I disagree. Illegal immigrants should not get in-state tuition I don't care either way

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...

Barack Obama suggested this weekend that children of illegal immigrants should have an opportunity to attend community colleges. In an interview with WUNC this weekend, the Democratic presidential candidate said children who attend public schools should have the chance to continue to improve themselves. "For us to deny them access to community college, even though they've never lived in Mexico, at least as far as they can tell ... is to deny that this is how we've always built this country up," he said. The campaign of Republican John McCain issued a statement saying he was opposed to providing benefits...

A state appellate court has put a financial cloud over the future of tens of thousands of undocumented California college students, saying a state law that grants them the same heavily subsidized tuition rate that is given to resident students is in conflict with federal law. In a ruling reached Monday, the state Court of Appeal reversed a lower court's decision that there were no substantial legal issues and sent the case back to the Yolo County Superior Court for trial. "It has a huge impact," said Kris Kobach, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a law professor at the...

A state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a policy that allows some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition to attend California's public colleges and universities. The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Monday that a lower court erred in dismissing the suit brought by 42 students who paid far more to attend college because they were out-of-state residents. At issue is a 2002 law that made any California high school graduate who attended at least three years of high school in the state eligible for in-state fee breaks, regardless of immigration status.

As Governor, Mark Warner vetoed legislation that would have prohibited public colleges in Virginia from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, using the same goofy line that Brian Moran thought was so important to deliver that he skipped a committee meeting on mental health commitment procedures. “Gov. Mark Warner vetoed legislation Wednesday that would prohibit public colleges from offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented aliens, saying the legislation would inflame anti-immigrant sentiments and have ‘no substantive effect.’”[1]

The Nebraska Legislature approved in-state tuition for illegal aliens in 2006. The University of Nebraska reported that about 3 dozen students participated in the program last year. According to the msm and the University everything is great, of course the students "fear" of deportation distracts them from getting straight-As. Does anyone have research or results from other states on how these programs have worked?

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...

PHOENIX — When Marco Carrillo, went to meet with his college counselor, her major worry about his future had little to do with his SAT scores or essay or extracurricular activities. It had to do with his citizenship. Such questions have become commonplace in Arizona, where voters passed a 2006 referendum, Proposition 300, that forbids college students who cannot prove they are legal residents from receiving state financial assistance. The law does not forbid nonlegal residents from attending college or require colleges to report them to the authorities. . . .supporters said the law would save the state millions of...

A brand new WarrenPiece1 video -- Go Mike! http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=1276

State Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, wants to end some of the uncertainty that may surround young adults in Colorado who are U.S. citizens and qualify for in-state tuition - but whose parents are in the country illegally. Senate Bill 79 would help remedy one of the unintended consequences of a 2006 law that was meant to tackle illegal immigration. It would give students the legal standing to establish residency without exposing their parents to added scrutiny. Students could then receive the significant financial benefit of in-state tuition without risking getting their own parents into trouble with immigration authorities. ...

New Iowa Leader Criticized by for Indecision on Federal Student Aid. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who backed in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, hedged Sunday on whether illegal immigrants who have gone to school in the United States should become eligible for federal student aid such as Pell grants and subsidized federal student loans. "I'm not sure that I would support that," Huckabee told ABC News, "it was a different program in Arkansas." Huckabee's failure to take a clear position on federal student aid while appearing on ABC News' "This Week with George...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, seeking to protect his lead and fend off challenges from rivals in this early-voting state, assailed Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee over supporting tuition breaks and broader sanctuary for illegal immigrants or their children. The former Massachusetts governor singled out two of his Republican opponents and likened them to Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying Tuesday: "There are those people in both parties who are in a sanctuary state of mind, who believe in sanctuary cities, who believe in policies which are sanctuary in nature." In campaign appearances and advertisements in...

DENVER: A group of students paying higher out-of-state tuition to attend college in Kansas cannot challenge a state law allowing some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition, a federal appeals court ruled. The ruling, issued Thursday, dealt only with whether the plaintiffs could challenge the 2004 Kansas law and did not address the merits of the law. A trial judge in Kansas had ruled the students lacked standing to challenge the law because they did not face a "concrete and imminent" injury. A three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in its ruling Thursday

While the federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) would grant undocumented immigrants a college tuition discount and American citizenship, the bill discriminates against Puerto Ricans. Since World War I, when the Jones Act of 1917 granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship to be eligible for the draft, Puerto Ricans have fought in every American military conflict. Today, Puerto Ricans from the island serve in Iraq. ~ snip ~ While Congress added Alaska and Hawaii to the union as the 49th and 50th states in 1959, Puerto Rico has been a U. S. protectorate since the Spanish-American...

HARTFORD - Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have reduced tuition at state colleges and universities for children of illegal immigrants. The Republican governor wrote in her veto message that while she sympathizes with the needs of children brought illegally to this country by their parents, Connecticut should not encourage illegal immigration.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell yesterday vetoed a bill that would have extended in-state tuition rates at Connecticut's public colleges and universities to children of illegal immigrants. Though Rell said she was sympathetic to the students, she said they are living in the United States illegally and she did not want to encourage people to circumvent federal immigration laws. "I understand these students are not responsible for their undocumented status, having come to the U.S. with their parents," Rell said in a statement. "The fact remains, however, that these students and their parents are here illegally and neither sympathy nor...

A bill that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants living in Connecticut to pay the same in-state tuition fees as residents may have died with Gov. M. Jodi Rell's veto Tuesday. "This bill does not address the underlying problem that these students face — that they are not legal residents of the United States," the governor said. "The requirement that students file an application to legalize their status would, in essence, be notification to the government that they are here illegally and it would greatly increase the likelihood of their deportation." But state Rep. Felipe Reinoso, D-Bridgeport, who...

HARTFORD -- Victoria Perez traveled to the state Capitol Tuesday to ask for a future. Perez, a senior at New Haven's Wilbur Cross High School, aspires to go to college next year to prepare for a career in criminal justice. But she has no idea how she'll foot the bill. The problem: She's in the United States illegally, and therefore doesn't qualify for in-state tuition rates at Connecticut's public colleges and universities. Out-of-state tuition costs three times as much. To Perez, a native Mexican brought to the United States at 3 years old, that simply isn't fair. "We're all created...

AUSTIN — They work as maids and busboys. They build homes and highways. They bone chickens on the way to market. They are worth billions of dollars to the Texas economy, but as members of the working poor they also are a drain of hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers. They are the 1.4 million illegal immigrants that the federal government estimates live in Texas. Half are divided evenly between the Dallas and Houston areas, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, with an additional 20 percent in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Less than 5 percent live in...

Keep Arkansas Legal, a new immigration reform group in the Central Arkansas area, will meet at the Roosevelt Thompson Libray from 3:00pm-6:00pm Saturday October 7th (Terry Library was booked). We will discuss what to do for the election and the upcoming legistlative session. We will then have a general discussion about illegal immigration. address: Roosevelt Thompson Library 38 Rahling Circle Little Rock, AR 72223 You can go to this link and type the address for a map http://maps.yahoo.com/" We also have a volunteer opportunity. The Lagrone campaign has given a neighborhood in Chenal called The Village to do door to...

Hispanics head for higher ed (Especially in Northwest Arkansas.) Gema Vargas, 20, will be a senior at UALR in the 2006-07 school year. She came to this country as a child. Her father, who had fled a war in Nicaragua, got a job in Arkansas, then brought his family up. Because they were considered war refugees, the Vargas family got the necessary papers to stay here comparatively easily, Vargas said. She said that a majority of Latino college-age students in the U.S. don’t have papers, which means they’re here illegally. Vargas speaks English fluently — although, she says, she sometimes...

As the chairwoman of the Orange County Dream Team Coalition, she is familiar with tight schedules. Gomez, 22, maintained an A-minus average at California State University, Long Beach, while working full time as a waitress on the graveyard shift. She recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology. Gomez -- who was 5 when her parents left Mexico and illegally entered the United States -- is a beneficiary of Assembly Bill 540. The 5-year-old measure, which has come under attack in the courts and Legislature from critics of illegal immigration, allowed her to attend college for the same...

My Note: The following was posted on the Tom McClintock's website on June 19, 2006. SB 349 was blocked by Democrats the same day as the quoted speech (April 2005), never making it out of the Senate Education Committee (there were only 3 Republicans on the Committee, out of 12). Senator McClintock authored SB 349, which would rescind the in-state tuition subsidy for illegal immigrants attending state universities and community colleges that was granted by AB 540 in 2001. However, a bill by Senator Gil Cedillo, SB 160, would allow illegal immigrant students to receive state sponsored financial aid in...

House committee provision would cut federal funding for college tuition WASHINGTON - States like Texas would be prohibited from using federal funds to provide in-state tuition to illegal immigrants at colleges and universities under a provision approved by a House committee Tuesday. The provision sponsored by Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, was included in the 2007 spending bill providing federal money for labor, health and human services and education programs. The bill and Culberson's amendment still must be approved by the House and Senate and signed by the president to become law. Culberson said his amendment would prohibit states from allowing...

For the burgs: A liberal checklist By Howie Carr Boston Herald Columnist Sunday, June 4, 2006 It used to be that there were only a handful of People’s Republics among the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns. You had Cambridge, Amherst, Lincoln, Brookline and a couple of others. These are the la-de-da burgs that erect walls and speed bumps at the town line to keep out the city riffraff who make up that wonderful diversity the suburban swells claim to celebrate. Only last week Brookline Town Meeting called for the impeachment of President Bush. The problem is that the Brookline Syndrome...

SACRAMENTO - Even as the national debate rages over illegal immigration, California legislators are weighing bills that take aim at the issue on fronts ranging from such public benefits as driver's licenses and in-state tuition rates to better investigation of the citizenship status of state prison inmates. Many of the bills are authored by Republican legislators looking to reduce public benefits to undocumented immigrants and investigate what they cost the state in resources and infrastructure. One bill would eliminate in-state discounted tuition rates for undocumented immigrants to attend community colleges and the California State University system. Another would allow the...

Gov. Jeb Bush said it's not fair to punish the children of illegal immigrants if they're trying to build a better life through education. The governor supports a controversial bill that would let illegal immigrants' children pay in-state college tuition rates, but the bill still faces an uphill battle in the current political climate, WESH 2 News reported. Florida requires children of illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition rates at colleges and universities. That means a college education would cost at least $60,000 more for the son or daughter of an undocumented worker. Bush said that's not fair to teens...

Gov. Tim Pawlenty urged the Ways and Means Committee in a letter Tuesday to remove a provision in the Higher Education Omnibus bill that grants in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants. Committee members will consider the proposal in a Tuesday night hearing. The Republican governor, who is up for reelection this year, said providing in-state rates for illegal immigrants would allow them to receive benefits that students attending Minnesota schools from most other states cannot get. "In other words, an Iowa high school graduate would not be eligible for in-state Minnesota tuition, but a non-U.S. citizen, who is here...

1. Immigration Bill Grants Illegals In-state Tuition After the Senate Judiciary Committee approved and distributed a proposal for granting legal status to many undocumented aliens, conservatives were alarmed to discover that the 471-page bill makes illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition costs. Under the proposal, illegals could pay the low tuition charged students who attend state universities in their home state, while legal residents of the U.S. would still be required to pay the much higher costs charged students who attend schools outside their state, the Washington Times reports. "This means that while American citizens from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina,...

Senators Give First OK To In-State Tuition For Children Of Illegal Aliens March 30, 2006 The children of illegal aliens would be allowed to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities under a bill given first-round approval Wednesday night by the Legislature. Governor Dave Heineman previously indicated he was likely to veto the bill if it reached his desk. His veto would be brushed aside, however, if 30 lawmakers voted for an override. The bill passed with exactly 30 votes. Senator Adrian Smith of Gering, a candidate for the GOP congressional nomination in the 3rd District, said the bill...

ILLEGAL ALIEN TUITION The US Senate bill on immigration allows for in state tution at state colleges for illegal aliens.... Do you support this clause of the bill? Yes No To Take Poll Click here

For most teenagers, going to college is part of the American dream. But the cost of fulfilling that dream has become a source of controversy, as illegal immigrants sometimes pay less than U.S. citizens to attend the same college. Illegal immigrants living in nine states can now attend public college at in-state tuition costs. But legal U.S. citizens still have to pay out-of-state tuition at schools outside of their home state. That price difference can be tens of thousands of dollars. Many say it's discrimination if states offer a cheaper public college education to illegal immigrants, and some out-of-state American...

A House of Delegates subcommittee effectively killed for the year a bill that would have allowed some illegal immigrants access to in-state tuition rates at Virginia colleges and universities. Members of the subcommittee said they were concerned about an informal opinion issued by a deputy attorney general that suggested that extending in-state tuition to illegal immigrants might force the state to offer similar tuition breaks to non-Virginian U.S. citizens as well. They voted to carry the bill over for further consideration until next year.

BOSTON - As the vote on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants approached this week, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry figured his side didn't have the votes. Since 2002, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry has represented Sandwich, the only Cape town that voted for President Bush in 2004. Perry helped defeat tuition breaks for illegal immigrants this week. Which, of course, isn't unusual for Perry, a Sandwich Republican and opponent of the bill. As one of just 20 GOP members in a House of Representatives with 140 Democrats, he's used to being outnumbered. So Perry, 42, one of a circle of emerging Republican...

The Boston Globe calls them "undocumented immigrants;" I call them what that are, and that is "illegal aliens." No matter what you call them, they still will not get in-state tuition in Massachusetts, now that House members voted 96-to-57 to defeat this most preposterous bill that had no business on Beacon Hill. Massachusetts House members last night decisively defeated a controversial bill to extend in-state tuition rates at public colleges to undocumented immigrants, effectively killing the measure for this year. The 96-to-57 tally surprised advocates of the bill, who believed they had enough votes to win approval in the House...

TUITION FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS Should in state tuition be available for illegal aliens? Yes No To take Poll Click Here !

This is one of those "Have we all gone mad?" editorials we write around here every so often. But that's the only question we can ask when things get so turned around, as the issue of illegal immigrants and college tuition. In 1996, Congress made it explicitly illegal to offer any benefit to illegal immigrants that is not offered to Americans. This is common sense, but still it needed to be codified into law. Nonetheless, nine states, including of course California, offer tuition breaks to illegal immigrants attending state schools. California passed its version of the law back when Gray...

This year, nearly 7,500 qualified California residents – who would otherwise be entering California state universities as incoming freshmen – are likely to be turned away for lack of funds. Meanwhile, approximately 7,500 illegal immigrants will receive heavily subsidized university educations at a cost of between $45 million and $65 million annually at those same universities. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture? Under a law signed in 2001 by Gov. Gray Davis, an illegal alien who has graduated from a California high school after three years of attendance – all while in violation of...

Attorneys representing college students from 19 states filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges in California.,P. The state allows illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition, while making out-of-state American citizens pay higher tuition fees. The 42 plaintiffs allege that California lawmakers and members of the board of regents for the University of California "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...

Tuition equity 11:10 PM PST on Sunday, December 18, 2005 Giving illegal immigrants the benefit of in-state tuition at California's public universities and colleges amounts to a subsidy for law breaking. A lawsuit to overturn a 4-year-old law and compensate out-of-state students for the disparity could prove an expensive education for the state. About 40 students -- all American citizens, all out-of-state residents -- sued the University of California, California State University and the state's community colleges on Wednesday, claiming the tuition break for illegal immigrants violates their civil rights. California taxpayers contribute more than $12 billion a year to...

A lawsuit filed in Kansas challenging in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants has paved the way for a similar court effort filed Wednesday in California.The two lawsuits even have a lawyer in common.Kris Kobach, who filed the Kansas litigation, was asked to join the California team of lawyers suing that state’s public university system in an attempt to overturn the tuition law there. Kobach is a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He ran unsuccessfully to represent Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District in 2004.Kobach flew to Sacramento, Calif., for a news conference Wednesday announcing the lawsuit.“The Kansas lawsuit paved...

Contending that they are illegally charged higher tuition and fees than undocumented immigrants, a group of out-of-state students and parents filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against California's public university and community college systems. The suit, filed in Yolo County Superior Court, challenges practices based on 2001 state legislation that allows certain undocumented immigrants to pay the same charges for college as other California students. California is one of at least nine states that permit some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state fees, an issue that has drawn fire from advocates of tougher policies against illegal immigration. The suit contends that 60,000...