2 hours ago • Dan Carden

INDIANAPOLIS | The debates over immigration and public policy that have roiled the Republican presidential contest may similarly divide lawmakers and provoke controversy next year at the Indiana General Assembly.

Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, vowed Monday to push for action by the Republican-controlled institution on a package of education, driver's license and health care legislation endorsed by Latino leaders.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate that, you know what, in Indiana we will pass policies that make sense and should be our law," Lanane said.

Among the measures set to be filed by Senate Democrats is a plan to permit undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and graduated from an Indiana high school, after attending for at least three years, to pay resident tuition at public universities.

Some 300 Indiana residents lacking U.S. citizenship currently are paying out-of-state college tuition, as required by law.

An estimated 8,000 Hoosier children and teenagers enrolled in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program may ultimately benefit from the proposal.

"It was difficult to see my friends make their college choice and to know I didn't have options," said Beatriz Preciado, an Indianapolis high school graduate and member of the Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance.

"In-state tuition would help me finish my physics and mechanical engineering major and be able to contribute to Indiana's economy because Indiana has been home for 15 years," Preciado said.

State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, and state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, sponsored a similar measure last session, in conjunction with state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville.

Senate Bill 345 advanced out of the Kenley-led Appropriations Committee, 8-4, but never received a final vote by the full chamber.

"The time is now," Lanane said. "Let's open up our schools to these wonderful young people and allow them to get the education that they need and to contribute to the state of Indiana."

Also on the Democrats' Latino agenda is authorizing the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to ignore citizenship and legal status in issuing driver's licenses, to ensure only qualified and insured motorists are operating vehicles on Indiana roads — an idea long-championed by state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond.

Ten states, including Illinois, already permit residents to obtain a driver's license without regard to their immigration status. More than 85,000 Illinois temporary visitor driver's licenses have been issued since 2013.

Democrats additionally will propose providing undocumented immigrants with diabetes access to kidney dialysis care through Medicaid, instead of waiting for end-stage renal disease to take hold before providing assistance.

"It would be much cheaper for us as a state to actually provide ongoing treatment for those individuals without them having to demonstrate that they are at death's door," Lanane said. "It also, of course, would be the humane things to do."

Democrats face an uphill climb to enact these proposals since they control just 10 of the 50 seats in the Indiana Senate.

The Republican supermajority generally has resisted immigration-related measures after adopting a harsh, Arizona-style illegal immigration law in 2011 that mostly was struck down by federal courts.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence last year also sued the federal government seeking to end President Barack Obama's deferred action program for undocumented child immigrants.

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