Free Republic

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...