Ken Dixon
Published 10:03 pm, Tuesday, February 19, 2013
ctpost.com

HARTFORD -- The dream died Tuesday in the legislative Higher Education Committee.

A bill that would let undocumented immigrants apply for financial aid to attend state colleges and universities expired at 5 p.m. on the last day the legislation could be raised for a public hearing.

But the bill can live on as an amendment during the rest of the legislative session, which ends at midnight June 6.

Karla Tlahuextl believes her undocumented classmates at Bridgeport's Central High School would perform better in school if they knew there was a chance to obtain financial aid for college.

The 17-year-old Mexican-born senior was in the Capitol on Tuesday to build on the state's 2011 DREAM Act, which allowed undocumented immigrants to attend state colleges and universities at in-state rates.

She and other members of CT Students for a DREAM came to make a last-minute request to the Higher Education Committee, asking for a generic application that excludes requirements for Social Security numbers. But committee leaders declined.

"There's a lot of students that really want to go to school, but being in their situation they can't afford to, money wise," said Tlahuextl, a U.S. citizen who wants to study psychology and music. "This bill is good because it will give them an opportunity to get the education they've always wanted to get and be part of America's future, to be able to participate in jobs and create their own future."

She said that allowing financial aid is the kind of incentive that could keep the children of illegal immigrants in school.

"A lot of the undocumented students feel like after high school it's over for them and they can't look forward to more education," Tlahuextl said in an interview in the Legislative Office Building.

"This bill would make a pathway for undocumented immigrants to apply," said Carolina Bortolleto, 24, a Brazilian-born Western Connecticut State University graduate who is the college access program coordinator for CT Students for a DREAM. She and more than a dozen students from Danbury, New Britain and Bridgeport presented the Higher Education Committee with petitions supporting the bill.

"We don't want special consideration, it's just access to the same pathways that everyone else has," said Bartolleto, who co-founded the group with her twin sister, Camila.

Sen. Antonietta Boucher, R-Wilton, ranking member of the Higher Education Committee, said Tuesday in a phone interview that the issue of undocumented immigrants must be addressed at the federal level.

"We need to find a path toward citizenship," said Boucher, who was born in Italy and immigrated with her parents at a young age. "I can see a positive path toward citizenship."

Expired: College aid for undocumented immigrants - Connecticut Post