Illegal immigrant ed. bill goes to House

By Michael Sewall, News Editor.
Posted February 20, 2007.

A bill in the Missouri House of Representatives could serve to reinforce a federal law regarding illegal aliens. The bill would prohibit the admission of unlawfully present aliens to public higher education institutions.

The Special Committee on Immigration passed the bill on Thursday and will move to further debate in the House.

“It’s already prohibited under federal law,” UM-Kansas City law professor Kris Kobach said. “This bill ensures the institutions are complying with that.”

Rep. Jerry Nolte, R-Gladstone, sponsored the bill and said there were some instances in Missouri in which illegal aliens were still admitted.

Kobach said it is less of an issue in the UM system but more at community colleges.

The bill would require that the registrar of each institution certify to the appropriation committees of the Missouri General Assembly that the institution has not knowingly admitted any illegal aliens.

The certification would have to be offered before the approval of any appropriations to each institution.

Kobach said each institution would have to “swear to the legislature” that it is complying with the bill.

The compliance alone would meet the requirement, but the higher education committees could ask for more data and proof to back the report from the office of the registrar.

“The university official would comply with any request for more information,” Kobach said.

Nolte said the purpose of the bill is to make sure state money spent on higher education was not funding any institution that had admitted illegal aliens.

“Taking taxpayer money to subsidize the education of a person who cannot be hired legally after graduation is a problem,” the committee stated in a bill summary. “Colleges should not enable illegal aliens to stay because that creates liability for the college.”

Nolte said testimonies to the committee voiced no real opposition to the bill.

“The only concerns have been that it would create another requirement to fill that many of them already are,” Nolte said.

Nolte, Kobach and Kandis Smith, UM system vice president for academic and student affairs, testified about the bill.

According to the bill summary, Smith said the UM system already has a very careful screening process in place, and students who are found with falsified information are expelled.

MU spokesman Christian Basi said MU admits only students who are U.S. residents or have valid green cards. Any international student admitted to MU must present the International Center with his or her non-immigrant document. Students must also submit their high school credentials.

Basi said if something seemed odd upon registration, the university would research the student’s information to a greater extent.

“We have enough checks and balances to find out if something is wrong,” Basi said.

Basi said MU has not experienced any problems that would pertain to the bill.

“To our knowledge, we have never admitted an illegal immigrant because of the policies we have set in place,” he said.

Basi said he could not comment about the work the Office of the University Registrar would have to do until the bill was finalized.

http://www.themaneater.com/article.php?id=26112