Senate Democrats Seek to Loosen Restrictions on Undocumented Immigrants
Senators plan to offer bills to allow driver's licenses, in-state tuition
Eric Berman
Sep. 21, 2015




Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) (WIBC.com photo: Eric Berman)
Senate Democrats plan to introduce three bills next session aimed at relaxing Indiana restrictions on illegal immigrants.
Minority Leader Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) says Democrats will propose joining 10 states who issue limited drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. They'll also bring back two bills they offered this year, to allow in-state college tuition rates for the children of illegal immigrants who attend Indiana high schools, and to allow Medicaid coverage of kidney dialysis.
Democrats introduced the dialysis and tuition bills in this year's session. The tuition bill made it through committee with five Republican votes, but was never called for a vote in the full Senate. The bill would grant in-state status to students who attended an Indiana high school for at least three years and received their diploma there. It would further roll back a 2011 law denying in-state tuition.
Legislators modified that ban in 2013 to exempt students who were already enrolled in Indiana colleges when the law took effect. Lanane says eight-thousand Hoosiers fall under the federal government's "deferred action" status, and estimates a few hundred of those are paying out-of-state tuition.
Lanane characterizes the proposals as "common sense." He says the state does cover dialysis patients once they are, in his words, "literally at death's door." He says supplying earlier coverage would cost a third as much. And he says the driver's license measure is a practical step that would protect everyone in the event of an accident involving an undocumented driver.
Lanane links the proposals to this year's religious freedom debate, arguing the bills would be a way to dispel "negativity" from the RFRA battle and demonstrate the state's compassion.
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