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

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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University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken and NU Regent Chuck Hassebrook testified against the bill because it repealed the tuition benefit.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.