Thread: Colorado expected to pass in-state tuition for illegal immigrants

3:33 AM 01/17/2013

A proposal to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition

rates

at Colorado universities is expected to sail through the state legislature in the coming weeks, even though it scraps compromises hammered out between Democrats and Republicans during earlier efforts to pass similar bills.
The difference this year is that Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion. They expect to have more than enough votes to make complex compromises unnecessary.
This attempt will be the seventh time lawmakers have tried to lower tuition rates for undocumented students, who currently pay out-of-state tuition rates even if they’ve lived in Colorado for their entire lives.
Bill sponsor Sen. Angela Giron said that tuition at some state schools can be twice as much or more for out-of-state students than it is for in-state students.
An effort to change the rates during the last session included a sometimes-confusing middle-tier rate for

illegal immigrants

, in the hope of attracting Republican support.
The plan involved barring illegal immigrants from receiving the College Opportunity

Fund

subsidy, a scholarship for all students paying in-state tuition. The scholarship was engineered to help raise higher-ed funding while also getting around certain revenue limits mandated by the Colorado constitution.
Making undocumented students ineligible for the scholarship was a way of trying to appease Republicans who worried that drastically lowering tuition rates for illegal

immigrants

would attract more of them. It was also a way of attempting to stay within federal law, which prohibits special breaks for illegal immigrants that aren’t available to U.S. citizens.


Read more: Colorado expected to pass in-state tuition for illegal immigrants | The Daily Caller

Boy Colorado That very sweet of you what about Our Kids in The good old USA ?
If I had a girl or boy that was going to your College sure in hell I would put up a Fight (
all I hear & see is the illegal Immigrants get every thing & our kids don't get any thing
Im sick of this . I don't about the rest Of the USA . but IM for One Is sick of this
come on USA fight for your kids .
No amnesty Or dream act

Expected to sail through in Colorado? ALIPAC helped defeat this measure twice before in Colorado and I believe the Democrats had a majority then as well did they not?

W

Colorado Pushes Illegal Alien Discount Tuition Law

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES
Judicial Watch
JANUARY 17TH 2013

Colorado lawmakers are more determined than ever to pass legislation that will give illegal immigrants discounted tuition at all of the state’s public colleges and universities, essentially forcing taxpayers to subsidize their education.

Several attempts have failed over the years but a state newspaper reports that Democrats, emboldened that they control both chambers of the legislature, willpush a bill through this year. Democrats hold a 37-28 majority in the House and a 20-15 majority in the Senate “What we’re looking at is a simpler, more equitable approach to tuition,” according to the state senator from Denver who is leading the effort to give illegal aliens discounted tuition.

On at least four occasions in the last few years the Colorado legislature has rejectedmeasures to grant illegal immigrants cheaper tuition at all 30 of the state’s public institutions of higher learning. The perk is traditionally reserved for legal residents who graduate from state high schools, though a handful of states—including Texas, California, Utah, Washington and New York—extend the benefit to illegal immigrants.

Because the legislation has repeatedly failed to pass in Colorado, one of the state’s public universities— Metropolitan State College of Denver—took matters into its own hands and created a special category of tuition for illegal immigrants last summer. It allows illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools to pay cheaper tuition at the school, which has an enrollment of about 24,000 and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a variety of fields.

Judicial Watch called on the school to immediately rescind the measure, which violates both federal law and Colorado law and constitutes a power beyond the board of trustees. Under federal law illegal immigrants are ineligible for state or local public benefits, including post-secondary education benefits unless a state enacts a measure affirmatively granting the perk. “In approving this new category of tuition, the College recognized that these students would otherwise be required to pay full non-resident tuition because of their inability to demonstrate lawful presence in the United States,” JW writes in a letter to the school’s Board of Trustees.

At least three states—Georgia, Oklahoma and Arizona—have solved the contentious issue by creating policies banning discounted tuition for illegal aliens at public colleges. One Colorado Republican opposed to the discount tuition law points out the irony in having taxpayers subsidize undocumented aliens’ college education since they can’t legally get a job in the U.S. It gives false hope, the lawmaker said.

Colorado Pushes Illegal Alien Discount Tuition Law | The Moral Liberal

Illegal immigrants urge lower Colo tuition rate

The Associated Press
Posted 1/16/13
DENVER — Dozens of jubilant students cheered Democratic lawmakers at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday for a bill lowering tuition costs for illegal immigrants graduating from state high schools — an often-proposed measure likely to pass this year.
“The air is full of optimism, and so it’s an honor to be up here,” Pueblo Democratic Sen. Angela Giron, one of the bill’s sponsors, said during a news conference to unveil the proposal.
Behind her stood several dozen students who have been lobbying lawmakers for years. This is the seventh time lawmakers have attempted to lower tuition costs for illegal immigrant students. Republicans have blocked the measure the last two years when they controlled the House, but previous attempts also failed when Democrats controlled both chambers of the Legislature.
This time, however, Democrats are more unified in their support and again control the House and the Senate.
“We come here today to close a chapter in American history and to open a new one,” said Denver Democratic Sen. Mike Johnston, another bill sponsor.
The proposal introduced Tuesday goes further than recent attempts to lower tuition for illegal immigrant students because it would make the students eligible for in-state tuition. Last year, Democrats tried to get support from Republicans who controlled the House by proposing tuition that was higher than in-state costs but lower than out-of-state rates.
“We are tired of waiting,” said Ana Calderon, 20. “These young people are tired of waiting. We have to go on with our lives, and if we don’t go to school now, when?”
Republicans who oppose the measure say it’s unfair to legal residents who still have to pay the higher out-of-state rate. Rep. Brian DelGrosso, a Republican from Loveland, criticized Democrats for proposing a broader measure than what they pitched when they were trying to get GOP support.
“It does seem more like a ‘take it or leave it’ type of bill this year,” he said. DelGrosso said the bill raises an issue of fairness.
“You got a lot of students who come here to Colorado to go to college, and they’re paying the high, out-of-state tuition fee. And they’re like, ‘Why should I not get the same benefit as some of these other students?”’ DelGrosso said.
He also said he disagrees with the notion that Republican opposition to the bill hurts the party’s courtship of Latino voters, who have largely favored Colorado Democrats. He said Latino families who have gone through the process for legal residency feel like it undermines their efforts.
“I don’t think that the entire Latino community is 100 percent behind this. It’s unfair to say that it’s us against the Latino community because we have definitely heard from several folks in the Latino community that quite frankly don’t want us to go this route,” he said.

The immigrant students receiving in-state tuition would have to pursue legal residency to qualify for the lower rate.

Illegal immigrants urge lower Colo tuition rate - The Gillette News Record