Thread: WI Gov Doyle repeats request for in-state tuition rates for

Doyle repeats request for in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants
Wheeler News Service
Published Monday, March 23, 2009

Gov. Jim Doyle has again asked lawmakers to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition at the University of Wisconsin, as long as they graduate from Wisconsin high schools.

It’s the fourth straight time Doyle has put the measure in his proposed state budget.

RELATED CONTENT
Article comments (

Republicans took it out the first three times. But it might not fare any better with Democrats in control.

Assembly Colleges Committee chair Kim Hixson of Whitewater says a 1996 federal law barred states from giving college residency benefits to illegal immigrants unless other U.S. citizens get the same treatment regardless of where they live.

Hixson says it would mean that a youngster from Montana could get in-state tuition and that’s something the state cannot afford.

The measure is being challenged in California which is among 10 students that grant in-state tuition to certain illegal immigrants.

Linton Joaquin of the National Immigration Law Center says Doyle’s proposal should not pose a problem because immigrants must graduate from Wisconsin high schools to be eligible.

Meanwhile, GOP colleges’ committee member Mark Gottlieb of Port Washington says the measure should be taken off the table until the federal law becomes clearer.

With the recession, Gottlieb says the state cannot the extra benefit right now.

http://www.hudsonstarobserver.com/artic ... erty_id=13

Doyle recommends in-state tuition for illegal immigrants
By: Megan Orear /The Daily Cardinal - March 23, 2009

Governor Doyle’s state budget proposal would allow illegal immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools to pay in-state tuition in Wisconsin’s public universities. However, a federal law may contradict this proposal.



A provision in Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2009-’11 executive budget proposal would allow certain illegal immigrants in Wisconsin to pay in-state tuition at UW campuses.

According to budget documents, undocumented residents would receive nonresident tuition remission if they graduated from Wisconsin high schools, attended high school in the state for at least three years and provided proof that they would apply for citizenship as soon as they were eligible to do so.

Doyle has included similar provisions in three previous budgets, but the state Legislature removed them before passage.

Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities chair Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, said the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Reconciliation Act of 1996 may conflict with Doyle’s proposal because it would require the state to grant all U.S. citizens in-state tuition as well.

“Then we couldn’t charge out-of-state tuition, and out of state tuition is very important to the university because it [not only] pays for that student’s education, but also it subsidizes Wisconsin citizens’ education,â€