wtvr.com
Sam Brock Anchor/Reporter

1:19 p.m. EST, January 4, 2012

The 2012 General Assembly session doesn't officially kick off until January 11, but already Capitol Square is buzzing with anticipation.

It could be a banner year for government reform, with a potential overhaul of the state's retirement system and a slew of social policies that for years had been stifled by a Democratically-controlled Senate.

One of the proposals that has consistently gone nowhere in Senate committees is an immigration matter which would require all post-secondary state institutions, including community colleges, to deny enrollment to students "who are not lawfully present" in the United States.

The the bill's sponsor, Delegate Chris Peace, R-Mechanicsville, says the legislation is straightforward. "Our taxpayer-funded colleges and institutions should be primarily for citizens, the taxpayers," he says. "Those slots should not be taken up by people who are here unlawfully or illegally."

The measure, submitted in 2011 as House Bill 1465, has passed the House of Delegates twice, but hasn't mustered the necessary support in the Senate Education and Health Committee.

"I hope we can kill it in the Senate, like we've killed it in the [Education and Health Committee] in years past," says Senator John Edwards, D-Roanoke.

"This idea is more radical than keeping the law the way it is," Edwards says. "Which says you can get into our schools if you pay out-of-state tuition."

That's where there appears to be some gray area- whether or not state colleges are actively screening applicants to determine their citizenship status before granting admission.

On Wednesday, CBS 6 asked Virginia Commonwealth University to explain its policy.

"Virginia Commonwealth University admits students who meet our criteria for admissions, and we require them to provide appropriate documentation before they are allowed to enroll," wrote university spokesperson Anne Buckley.

"VCU does not knowingly enroll undocumented students."

Delegate Peace would like to make it 'public policy' in Virginia that the Board of Visitors at state universities, and the State Board of Community Colleges, explicitly deny enrollment to anyone not living in the U.S. legally.

But while the philosophical merits of the plan play out on in the hallways and the committee rooms of the Capitol, a more practical question comes to light: can Delegate Peace's bill actually make it out of committee in the Senate for a vote?

Control in the Senate is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, 20-20, with control over powerful committees like Education and Health currently a point of contention.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, a Republican, believes he has the right to cast a tie-breaking vote on organizational matters in the Senate.

His Democratic counterparts disagree, and have filed a lawsuit accordingly.

How this issue gets resolved could go a long way in determining what type of legislation, from immigration law to gun rights, sees the light of day in the Senate.

Peace and Edwards both agree the formation of committees will be paramount in providing an answer, but neither man knows what will happen on January 11.

"The bill's prospects will depend on committee makeup in the Senate," says Peace. "But right now we don't think the political winds have changed enough in the Senate to see that bill through."

"We're all not sure at this point," Edwards says with a laugh. "But," the Roanoke Democrat adds, "it's my understanding that those who got reelected who were on the Education and Health Committee will remain there...and there are probably enough opposed [to the bill] to defeat it again."

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