Thread: Immigration bill likely a goner Nebraska

Published Saturday | March 1, 2008
Immigration bill likely a goner
BY LESLIE REED
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

• Your Legislature 2008
• Immigration bills touch nerve in Legislature
• Impeachment measure's reach prompts debate
• Bill on public speaking without signup advances
• Setback for Heineman's immigration bill

LINCOLN — The chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee now says he will not try to revive Gov. Dave Heineman's bill targeting illegal immigration — unless the governor agrees to retain a law that allows undocumented immigrants to attend college at resident tuition rates.

"I am not going to waste the committee's time," State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha said Friday.

"It's not the kind of policy I can support. We provide educational opportunity to these children through high school, and they're paying tuition (to the colleges).

"If they can find a way to stay in the state, they could be productive citizens of Nebraska. It's worth the investment."

The resident tuition bill was passed over Heineman's veto in 2005.

Heineman spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein said the governor will not drop the in-state tuition repeal that is part of Legislative Bill 963.

Ashford had said earlier that the committee would reconsider LB 963, but he said that statement was based on removing the tuition provision from the legislation.

During a press conference Friday with Attorney General Jon Bruning, Heineman angrily denounced the Judiciary Committee for its 5-1 vote Thursday to kill LB 963.

"This battle is not over yet," Heineman said. "Nebraskans are going to be very upset and very angry when they learn what the committee did. Nebraskans do not want their hard-earned tax dollars to pay for benefits for illegal immigrants."

The measure would require all applicants for public benefits to sign a sworn statement that they are citizens or legal residents of Nebraska.

All state and local government agencies would be required to verify the legal status of applicants for benefits through a Web site of the Homeland Security Department.

The measure also repeals the in-state tuition law, deeming it a public benefit to which illegal immigrants are not entitled.

At Wednesday's public hearing, University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken and NU Regent Chuck Hassebrook testified against the bill because it repealed the tuition benefit.

Milliken said 28 students on three campuses are attending NU under the program, which applies only to those with Nebraska high school diplomas who have lived in the state for at least three years.

The students also must pledge to seek legal residency at the earliest opportunity.

Heineman and Bruning urged members of the public who are concerned about the matter to e-mail the committee members who either voted with State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha to kill the bill or abstained from voting.

State Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln, who voted to kill the bill, said she doubted the panel would reverse its decision if Heineman's bill remains in its current form.

Sen. DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, who sponsored the 2005 bill enacting the in-state tuition benefit, agreed.

She said Heineman has not demonstrated a need to repeal the tuition benefit, and he did not make his case on why verification is needed when federal law already prohibits government agencies from providing the benefits in question to illegal immigrants.

Schimek also said she was not persuaded by the phone calls and letters she has received from supporters of the Heineman bill.

Her aide, she said, was forced to hang up on one woman because she wouldn't stop screaming. Another person called Schimek a socialist and demanded her resignation.

The governor "ought to tell them to use some restraint," Schimek said. "It wasn't very impressive."

Chambers said he would oppose efforts by other committee members to revive the measure.

He said Heineman and Bruning had mischaracterized his comments. Although he does believe the governor and the attorney general are whipping up racism, he said, he did not call them racists.

"This is one of those issues where they can play to the lowest elements in Nebraska society," Chambers said. "They are whipping up the mob."

Heineman said Chambers had "pulled that racism card out one too many times."

"This is not about racism; this is not about discrimination. This is about fairness and equity," he said.

"If they can find a way to stay in the state, they could be productive citizens of Nebraska. It's worth the investment."

Mr. Ashford, that is not the issue. The issue is whether they are displacing legal Nebraska residents, or US citizens from elsewhere, of employment opportunities. The answer from a number of other states is YES they are and that is the great tragedy, among many, of this entire issue.

Heineman and Bruning urged members of the public who are concerned about the matter to e-mail the committee members who either voted with State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha to kill the bill or abstained from voting.

I can't believe Ernie Chambers is still in the Unicameral. I remember the idiot from my high school days. I won't say exactly when that was, but Ronald Reagan had not been elected as president yet. This nut case is a lost cause. Back then he tried to fight a speeding ticket he got one morning claiming that representatives could not be ARRESTED when the unicameral was in session. He refused to dress appropriately and showed up on the floor in outfits that made Simon Cowells normal attire look like he was ready for a black tie event. EVERYTHING with Ernie has to do with racism. He pulls out the race card more often that most of us pull out our credit or debit cards. I really do not see much hope if he is on a committee that can kill this bill.

Senator Chambers is probably the undisputed biggest racists in Nebraska, possibly the nation.

This is his last year in the legislature because they passed a rule a few years back for term limits and this is his last year. This immigration bill was just Ernie's last firing shot across the Governor's bow.

However, it won't be the last we see of Ernie Chambers. He will continue to be a thorn in the side of the people of Nebraska until his last dying breath. The states liberal newspapers continue to report any negatives that will help the state's pro-illegal activists even though down deep they loath the Senator.

I'm glad that Senator Chambers called "we concerned citizens" that were at the committee meeting "lowest elements in Nebraska society". That really gets my juices flowing. For the most part, those present were like myself middle-class, retired and patriot Americans, who pay the bulk of the states taxes in what we consider a high taxation state. We are tired of getting gouged by illegal immigrants pushing their way into the state's public trough. I think Senator Chambers did us a service in getting everyone fired up for the next round!

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