Thread: Speaker questions illegal immigrant tuition law

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Speaker questions illegal immigrant tuition law

By María Villaseñor | editor in chief
March 03, 2006


Utah runs the risk of owing out-of-state students $34 million, according to Mike Sizer, of Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.

Sizer said a Utah law allowing illegal immigrants who have attended a Utah high school for three years and graduated to pay resident tuition, runs contrary to a federal law prohibiting illegal immigrants from being given rights not available to U.S. citizens.

“Utah is not doing that; they are not following the federal law, and that takes precedent,” Sizer said.

If non-resident students file for a lawsuit, Sizer said, Utah may be held liable for $34 million, the amount non-residents are paying for out-of-state tuition.

Although the attendance was low for Shizer’s Honors Issues Forum speech last Wednesday at noon, many of the 13 people there were vocal and challenged Sizer’s ideas.

“They’re not foreigners; they’re children in this community and they are being punished for something because their parents brought them here,” said Alicia Giralt, Weber State University Spanish associate professor.

Three years ago, Utah passed House Bill 144 that would allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition. Sizer said that law was passed under the assumption that the U.S legislature would pass the DREAM Act, extending a similar right to immigrants across the state. The DREAM Act was never passed by the legislature.

“Because they got ahead of themselves,” Sizer said of Utah State, “they now find themselves that they’re in this possible financial liability.”

A house bill was proposed this year to repeal that exemption, but it was voted down by one vote before it reached the house floor. Utah is still acting against federal law, Sizer said.

It is estimated that 169 illegal immigrants are using that exemption to attend Utah colleges and universities; 45 are at Weber State University, according to Sizer. Many of those students were brought to the United States by their parents at a young age and were raised in Utah.

“These are children that have grown here,” Giralt said. “And if they’ve grown here they’re not Mexicans or Filipino anymore — they’re American children.”

Shizer recommended that children of illegal immigrants go back to their home country and apply for citizenship or a student visa legally; a solution that Giralt said was unreasonable to students who come from low-income families.

“To assume that they can go and pay, not out out-of-state tuition, but out-of-country tuition; that’s totally unreasonable,” she said.

But Shizer said those graduates aren’t being helped by their degrees. He quoted a Los Angeles Times statistics that estimated illegal immigrants who gain a degree have a low employment rate because of they are still considered illegal immigrants. Giralt countered that employers are often willing to help a graduate apply for resident or citizen status.

Shizer noted that in the 10th District Court of Appeals, which encompasses Utah, there is a suit from U.S. citizens who paid out-of-state tuition. Depending on that outcome, Utah may be held liable by non-resident students.

But, one attendee contested that idea because unlike other states, Utah only exempts illegal immigrants from paying non-resident tuition to those who have attended a Utah high school for at least three years. Shizer said that clause may or may not guard Utah against a lawsuit. Utah wouldn’t run counter to the federal law if American citizens attended at least three years in a Utah high school, but Shizer noted that many Utah graduates who leave the state for a period of time and then return to universities here, are considered non-residents, even if they paid Utah taxes.

One attendee, Michiko Nakashima-Lizarazo, WSU Services for Multicultural Students counselor, noted a provision allowing Utah Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries to pay resident tuition and suggested a provision should be made to allow Utah residents who leave the state to still pay resident tuition.

Shizer frequently said in his speech that he wasn’t anti-immigrant, but simply wanted the law to be followed. He said he has encouraged family he has in Easter, Europe to wait out the immigration process, although they are thinking of just coming illegally.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that all of the laws we have on the books are right,” Shizer said. “However we need to correct those, but this way; by Utah braking federal law does not solve that problem.”

The law in this case is so clear!

The reconquistas are on the wrong end of the law and they are just trying to buy time.

I can't wait until the courts rule on this and all goes in favor of Americans!

“To assume that they can go and pay, not out out-of-state tuition, but out-of-country tuition; that’s totally unreasonable,” she said.

Didn't know there's a difference between out-of-state and out-of-country tuition.

You out-of-state students in Utah schools get in line for your refunds.