Posted on 02/07/2002 11:31:56 PM PST by usadave
The writer, of Lincoln, represents District 27 in the Nebraska Legislature.
The Legislature's Education Committee killed Legislative Bill 955 this week. Even though I was disappointed, I was not surprised. LB 955 is a complicated issue and arouses a lot of strong feelings. I would like to explain my reasons for introducing the bill.
The intent of the bill was to allow undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition if they graduate from a public or private high school in this state or receive an equivalent degree. They must have resided in Nebraska for at least three years with a parent or guardian and must have provided to the postsecondary educational institution an affidavit stating they would file an application to become a permanent resident at the earliest opportunity. State law already provides for their admittance.
The problem addressed by the proposed legislation can be readily stated: Although the state makes available, and requires attendance at, the public K-12 school system, current law effectively denies undocumented students access to higher education by making such students ineligible for consideration as residents for tuition purposes.
An undocumented student who may have attended public schools in Nebraska throughout his or her entire K-12 education would be required to pay nonresident tuition, which quite properly is approximately 2.7 times as much as resident tuition. Current law effectively denies access to state higher education for most of these students by making it prohibitively expensive.
This situation is clearly not in Nebraska's best interest. Our own self-interested need for qualified human capital requires that we provide access to higher education to all our residents.
The legislation I introduced represents a major step forward. This legislation would not provide any benefit to these undocumented students that is not available to other students. It would not provide any relief from the rigorous admissions requirements of the University of Nebraska. It merely would allow these students reasonable access to higher education in the state.
Many undocumented immigrants enter the United States legally with student, tourist, business or some other temporary visa and become "illegal" when they remain in the country after their visas have expired (according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service's triennial report of 1996).
Most of these students whose visas have expired would not qualify for in-state tuition because it would be rare for them to meet all the requirements stated in LB 955 - for instance the requirement that they must have resided in this state for at least three years with a parent before the date they graduate from high school.
The students targeted by this bill identify themselves as Americans and have the intent of making this country their home. According to a 1997 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, the undocumented immigrants generate significantly more in taxes paid than they cost in services. Despite their ineligibility for most federal benefits, these undocumented immigrants who are working have Social Security and income taxes withheld from their paychecks. Immigrants actually pay substantially more in taxes every year than they receive in welfare benefits.
LB 955 would not grant these students the right to federal or state loans, grants, scholarships or any other financial assistance. They would be granted the right to pay only $3,830 to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as full-time students instead of the out-of-state tuition cost of $9,432. I would imagine that many of the currently eligible undocumented students are not attending college because of the high out-of-state tuition rates. If the in-state tuition rate were available to them, many more students would attend colleges.
As a result of the Sept. 11 incidents, many states are now reconsidering their immigration policies, but California and Texas lawmakers have decided to allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition for college.
This issue will not go away. Currently there are discussions about implementing a similar policy at the federal level. To me, the issue is about young men and women who have their whole lives ahead of them. Do we want them to have hopes? Do we want them to have dreams? Or do we want them to be a permanent underclass? How can we say no to the children who are in this country though no fault of their own?
If it is indeed true that immigration, and any issues related to immigration, is solely a federal issue, then how can it be that some states are granting special benefits to illegal immigrants. Included among these benefits are the granting of in-state college tuition fees to high school graduates who are illegal immigrants, and the granting of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
If the provisions in Proposition 187 were held to be unconstitutional because immigration, and issues related to immigration, is a federal issue and comes under the sole authority of the federal government, shouldn't the granting of in-state college tuition fees and driver's licenses to illegal immigrants by the states also be considered unconstitutional for the very same reason?
In other words, if it is illegal for a state to deny benefits to illegal immigrants because immigration comes under the federal government's sole authority, why should it be legal for a state to grant benefits to illegal immigrants if immigration comes under the federal government's sole authority?
And how are you going to ascertain if these scoff-laws have resided for at least 3 years?Ask them?
State law already provides for their admittance.
You're not lawfully here,but...
Our own self-interested need for qualified human capital...
The legislator's view of "the people"
The students targeted by this bill identify themselves as American...
Too bad for them our immigration laws don't agree.
According to a 1997 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, the undocumented immigrants generate significantly more in taxes paid than they cost in services
The ACLU,huh?Thought I smelled them.Maybe we should make all US citizens illegal aliens.Maybe the deficits would disappear.
...these undocumented immigrants...
I think he means people who are here unlawfully.
How can we say no to the children who are in this country though no fault of their own?
I suspected that this might be all about the children.We might start by insisting that their parents abide by our laws.
I love the quotes around "illegal." Obviously the writer does not believe they're really "illegal." HELLO? They chose to remain here after their visas expired, (or their parents did, in the case of young students.) They knew from the get-go that the visas were temporary. They could have tried to get the visas renewed, or they could have gone home. Nobody forced them to stay here.
I agree that all residents of a state should be accorded the same protection under state law and the U.S. Constitution, but here we are talking about granting a specific right to illegal immigrants, and immigration is solely a federal issue and that is my argument.
Now if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that illegal immigrants have a right to a college education, or if Congress passed a law to that effect, then the matter would be resolved. But in my opinion the individual states don't have the legal authority to pass such a law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.