Thread: NE: Immigration bill likely at end of line

Published Friday | March 7, 2008
Immigration bill likely at end of line
BY LESLIE REED
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN — State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha gave up Thursday on trying to revive Gov. Dave Heineman's immigration bill.

Ashford tried to negotiate a compromise on Legislative Bill 963, even after his Judiciary Committee voted last week to kill it and Heineman refused to budge on his call to repeal a law allowing undocumented immigrants to attend college at in-state tuition rates.

Nonetheless, Ashford, chairman of the committee, asked committee members to consider an amendment that would leave the tuition benefit in place. He also proposed deleting a criminal penalty for those who falsely claim to be citizens when they apply for government benefits in Nebraska.

Ashford's amendment would have retained only the provision that all state and local agencies use a Homeland Security database to verify the legal status of those who apply for benefits in Nebraska.

Several committee members adamantly opposed repealing the tuition benefit, enacted over Heineman's veto after a hard-fought battle in 2005.

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who spearheaded the committee's 5-1 vote to kill the bill, said he told Ashford to drop the matter.

Chambers said four veteran lawmakers — himself, DiAnna Schimek of Lincoln, Dwite Pedersen of Omaha and Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul — would not change their votes to allow the bill to advance. Ashford needed five votes from the eight-member committee to resurrect the bill.

Pedersen said he wouldn't change his mind even if the in-state tuition repeal were eliminated.

He said he refused to give the measure his support because it would condone what he termed rude and racist conduct by some supporters of the bill during last week's public hearing.http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10276697

It looks like it is really dead this time!

The reason that it died isn't because of rude and racist conduct by some supporters of the bill during last week's public hearing (I was there), it was because four key members of the committee simply "just didn't want it to go to the floor of the Legislature." End of story.

The bills supporters conduct didn't have anything to do with these members decision. It was evident, to me, that they were opposed to the bill from the start. They were only looking for a "scape-goat" and Chambers provided that right away by calling the bill "racists" and elicting groans from the crowd. Ernie Chambers had an agenda when he entered the committee room. Admitedly, the bill’s supporters played right into Chamber’s hand and looking back, I doubt that the groans would have made any difference at all once he pulled the “race cardâ€

Originally Posted by FedUpInNebraska

That’s politics but next year we’ll be back with a vengeance.

It's good to hear this.