Thread: Florida: Immigrant tuition bill fails again

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 392269.htm

Posted on Fri, Apr. 21, 2006

Immigrant tuition bill fails again

STEPHEN MAJORS
Herald Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE - For the fourth consecutive year, a proposal to give in-state college tuition benefits to some illegal immigrants who graduate from Florida high schools died Thursday in the Legislature.

Amid swirling national attention to illegal immigration, the fate of a proposal in Tallahassee that hits on the edges of that debate was the same as in previous years - initial movement in the beginning of session and a death near the end. In this election year, as the proposal moved through committees on its way to the floor, some lawmakers received intensifying pressure from constituents to vote against it.

The bill would have treated as in-state residents for the purpose of tuition costs illegal immigrants who lived in Florida and attended high school for at least three years, who graduated, and who signed an affidavit with a state college or university pledging to seek legal status.

The fissures and competing interests stoked in the state capital by the measure, which pitted some Republicans against Democrats, and some Republicans against other Republicans, resembled the divides that are now prevalent in Washington.

A mostly party-line tie vote killed the proposal Thursday in the Senate Domestic Security Committee.

The one exception in the 4-4 outcome was state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a Republican from Miami, who voted for the bill.

Differing opinions

Just an hour before the committee was set to vote, Senate President Tom Lee told reporters that he would do what he could to keep the bill from passing in the Senate.

"We can't pay for health care, for tuition for our own people," said Lee, R-Brandon. "We have tuition increases every year in our appropriations bill. I'm sorry. I'm not a hard-liner on these things and I have no anger toward people who come here seeking a better life, but doggone it, they ought to pay their way and have to come here legally, and it's not our job to subsidize illegal activity."

Shortly before that, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives voiced a different opinion.

"If we have children that are illegal immigrants that have been through middle school and high school, played by the rules and made good grades, they should be able to pay in-state tuition," said Allan Bense of Panama City. "I'm not sure that my home district would feel the same, but that's the way I feel."

The House bill had one committee remaining.

Sen. Frederica Wilson, the Miami Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the proposal has reached the Senate floor twice before. This year, she said, the ongoing national debate about finding a solution to illegal immigration problems has poisoned the political climate.

Wilson made the bill more palatable to those who opposed it by barring illegal immigrants who would receive in-state tuition benefits from also being eligible for Bright Futures and other scholarship programs. On Thursday, she also encouraged those who opposed it to walk away and abstain during the vote, instead of voting against it.

"Most of these children have been here since kindergarten," Wilson said. "They're not here because of anything they have done illegally. Now you're on your own. You're a stranger, and you have to pay out-of-state tuition," which she said is about $14,000 a year, instead of $2,000 in-state.

Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville Republican, voted for the bill in its previous committee after Wilson agreed to amend it, but said he simply could not support it again because of his constituents back home.

Bradenton Republican Rep. Bill Galvano, who opposes the bill, also received a rash of e-mail from constituents telling him to vote against the bill.

"There's something fundamentally wrong with that picture," Wise said about giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition benefits while charging legal residents out-of-state fees. "It's probably indefensible."

Question of fairness

Even if the measure passed into law this year, it would likely have faced a lawsuit from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has brought challenges to similar laws in states like Kansas and California.

In those lawsuits, FAIR has represented out-of-state students attending state universities who are legal U.S. residents. The lawsuits claim that the unequal treatment violates a federal law that says that any benefit given to an illegal immigrant must also be given to all other students, said Mike Hethmon, the general counsel for immigration law at FAIR. It also violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, he said.

"The politicians in both parties find it very difficult to deal with this issue on the merits," Hethmon said. "It's very vulnerable to demagogic appeals from opposing politicians of all stripes."

In Kansas, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit, saying the students lacked standing. Hethmon said the judge failed to rule on the merits, and FAIR has appealed the case.

A national problem

But for Luz Corcuera, the program director for the Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County and the chairwoman of the Latino Community Network, the answer to the problems all states are facing can be found in Washington.

The DREAM Act, which was first introduced in the U.S. Senate three years ago, would allow illegal immigrant students to become legal residents if they have received an education and can demonstrate that they don't have a criminal record. It has not become law, but was reintroduced last November.

"We need to look at this issue as a national problem," Corcuera said. "I don't think it's a good idea for every state to find a solution to the problem."

Corcuera said she "would be mad, too," if she were an out-of-state student trying to get the same benefit that an illegal immigrant was getting, but said a national solution to the education portion of the immigration debate would help correct an injustice.

"It's an irony and a hypocrisy," Corcuera said. "They can even go to jail if they skip classes, and then after? We are not capturing all of these talents that could be their future, kids who could give back to the community what they have received."

Ana Robledo, a 19-year-old former student at Southeast High School who graduated with a 3.9 grade point average, is waiting for the chance to go to college. She wants to be a physical therapist, but said she won't have a chance of affording higher education without being able to pay in-state tuition.

"We would have the opportunity to actually do something in life," Robledo said. "To actually be able to work in the professional field and help others and ourselves at the same time. Without that opportunity it would be almost impossible to attain that."

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 399910.htm

Posted on Fri, Apr. 21, 2006



Some undocumented immigrants' kids could get in-state tuition

DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Some Florida high school students whose parents are in the country illegally could be eligible for in-state college tuition under a measure passed Friday by the House, but the idea appears a long shot in the Senate where a similar measure was defeated in committee this week.

Senate President Tom Lee is against allowing the children of illegal immigrants to get the tuition break, making the prospects of it resurfacing there dim. But the House-passed bill is on its way to the Senate and its sponsor there vows to push to keep the issue alive.

Giving the children of illegal immigrants access to in-state tuition would erase a major barrier to them getting their education and is one of the top issues for the migrant farm worker community in the state.

Children who are undocumented typically can't afford college because they can't show they're legal Florida residents, meaning they can't get in-state tuition, which is much cheaper than what other students pay.

The measure that passed the House would only give the break to the brightest of those children, reserving the in-state tuition for the 500 top undocumented students graduating from high schools in Florida each year. The students must show they have been in Florida with their parents at least three years to qualify.

Rep. Juan Zapata, who has pushed the idea in the House, said undocumented children aren't the same as illegal adults, because they did nothing wrong.

"This ... is about giving children an opportunity to live a better life," said Zapata, R-Miami.

He said the students that would benefit would be the most motivated and have hopes for a better life than their parents had in their home country.

"Imagine having that taken away because of what your parents did," Zapata said.

But opponents of the idea say it isn't fair for the state to give a tuition break that would essentially reward parents who have broken the law. Opponents also say their constituents are simply not in favor of helping pay for the education of illegal immigrants' children.

"We can't pay for tuition for our own people," said Lee, R-Valrico. "I have no anger toward people who come here seeking a better life, but doggone it they ought to pay their own way and come here legally. And its not our job to subsidize illegal activity."

The language creating the out-of-state tuition waiver that passed the House on a 91-21 vote was part of a broader bill (HB 795) aimed at helping first generation college students pay tuition.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, would put $14 million of state money into a program that would provide scholarships to certain low-income students who are part of the first generation in their family to go to a state university or community college that is willing to match the money.

That idea was part of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan for making college more accessible to minorities.

A spokesman for Bush, Russell Schweiss, said the governor hadn't reviewed the immigrant language in Flores' bill. But Schweiss did note that Bush has in the past supported giving in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants, an idea that has passed the Senate the last two years, but died in the House.

This year there is a separate bill (HB 119) working its way through the House, sponsored by Zapata, that only includes the in-state tuition for immigrant children, without the scholarship program.

That measure was before the House Education Council Friday. There, Zapata, who was raised in Colombia, but whose parents became American citizens, got emotional in arguing for its passage.

"People have gotten really mean about this issue, saying somehow these kids should be punished for what their parents did," Zapata said, fighting tears.

The council approved his bill unanimously.

But the Senate version (SB 366) of the stand-alone immigrant tuition bill, sponsored by Sen. Fredrica Wilson, D-Miami, was defeated earlier this week in the Senate Domestic Security Committee, where it died on a 4-4 vote.

Flores' broader scholarship bill is now headed to the Senate, and Wilson vowed to push to get it heard there, despite Lee's opposition and the defeat of the same basic idea in a committee.

"It's going to be a battle," she said. But she said the measure would only benefit a small number of children who without it will be doomed to a lifetime of poverty like their parents.

"We're not talking about millions of children, this is just a few kids," Wilson said. "And I'm going to fight. I'm not going to give up."

Nine other states - California, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma Texas, Utah and Washington - allow at least some undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

And the issue is also part of the federal debate on immigration; a bill in the United States Senate would allow illegal immigrants brought here as children to be eligible for in-state tuition if they have high school diplomas or GEDs, and no criminal record.

The whole issue of illegal immigration is a federal one, and Florida shouldn't be trying to solve it piece by piece, argued one opponent, Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine.

"I'm not unsympathetic to the plight of some of these youngsters," said Proctor. "But the issue is really of a much broader magnitude.... We should take on the problem (of illegal immigration) in all its totality."

It's just how insane this Country is getting with these corrupt politicians.

Wilson's

Most of these children have been here since kindergarten," Wilson said. "They're not here because of anything they have done illegally. Now you're on your own. You're a stranger, and you have to pay out-of-state tuition," which she said is about $14,000 a year, instead of $2,000 in-state.

And you know what "oh so smart lady", if you give them instate tuition you will make EVEN MORE want to BREAK OUR LAWS to come in.

Sorry that's such a difficult connection for you to make. Maybe all of your wires are loose.