Advocates hope to revisit issue of in-state tuition for immigrants
By ERICA JACOBSON
Norwich Bulletin


HARTFORD -- Discussion, education and outreach are the next steps a group of immigrant advocates plan to take to keep the in-state tuition for some undocumented students idea alive until it can come before the General Assembly again.

Barbara Richards, a New Haven-based advocate, said the group decided to reach out to legislators who did not vote for the bill, high school guidance counselors, university and college leaders as well as business owners.

"The business community really ought to be thinking about future workers -- educated future workers," she said.

Joyce Hamilton Henry, vice president of the Connecticut Immigrant and Refugee Coalition, said Thursday morning's meeting was key to planning the next steps in addressing an issue important to the state.

"We certainly want to debrief from the session in terms of understanding what went well and what didn't," Hamilton Henry said. "There are too many children of immigrants in limbo."

The General Assembly passed a bill that would have given in-state tuition to students who lived in Connecticut and who had completed through graduation at least four years of high school-level education in the state, regardless of their citizenship status.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed the measure June 26. She wrote in a letter to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz she was sympathetic with the goals of the bill, but felt the citizenship status of such students should be resolved at the federal level.

"The fact remains, however, that these students and their parents are here illegally," Rell wrote at the time, "and neither sympathy nor good intentions can ameliorate that fact."

During Rell's consideration of the bill, Richards said the state could expect about 200 students to take advantage of the initiative were it to become law. Thursday, she refuted some criticism she had heard about undocumented students taking spots from U.S. citizens at the University of Connecticut. Richards took statistics from Texas, which has an in-state tuition law, extrapolated them to Connecticut and determined about 2.5 undocumented students would choose the school each year.

"The reason is they can't afford it," Richards said. "It's expensive, and they can't get state and federal financial aid."

The group also discussed meeting with Connecticut's congressional delegation to talk about immigration reform efforts at the federal level. Mike Verrett with United Action Connecticut said it was important to do so.

"Bottom line," he said, "that's what underlies all of what's going on here."

Reach Erica Jacobson at 425-4241 or ejacobs@norwichbulletin.com


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