TX - Senate panel weighs repealing in-state tuition for immigrants

Published: April 6, 2015 12:26 pm
Marissa Barnett

AUSTIN–More than 100 activists–some dressed in cap and gown–flocked to the Capitol on Monday in an effort to keep a 14-year-old law that allows some students in the country illegally to pay in-state college tuition as key senators consider whether to ax the program.

A Senate border security panel is expected to debate late into the day a bill by Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, that would require Texas colleges and universities to charge students without papers out-of-state tuition rates. That tuition is often nearly twice as expensive as the in-state rate.

Texas’ law–overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers in 2001–allows students who have been in the state for at least three years and have a Texas high school diploma or GED to pay in-state tuition. Nearly 20 states have the program.

The state’s long history and relations with Mexico and its large Hispanic population has generally meant a tempered approach on immigration.

But in the last few years, and particularly during the 2014 campaign, some Republicans have advocated loudly for pushing a harder line on immigration, including the repeal of the program. The fervor comes as the nation debates its immigration policy.

Opponents, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, say the program is a magnet for people coming into the country illegally and unfair to American students from other states who pay higher rates at Texas schools.

Supporters, including many business groups, say that offering in-state tuition leads to a better-educated society and protects the investment Texas already has made in the child’s education.

Ahead of the hearing, a broad coalition of lawmakers, business representatives and students laid out their case for keeping the law. The cost of the program is small but the return to the economy is great, said A.J. Rodriguez, of the Texas Association of Business.

“It’s a wise investment. When these students graduate, they’ll become part of the Texas workforce,” he said.

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said it was unfair for students, many of whom arrived in the country as children, to be punished for the actions of their parents.

Lawmakers need to “have a little more heart and a hell of a lot more Texas common sense,” she said.

More to come.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c...migrants.html/

Quote:

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Ahead of the hearing, a broad coalition of lawmakers, business representatives and students laid out their case for keeping the law. The cost of the program is small but the return to the economy is great, said A.J. Rodriguez, of the Texas Association of Business.

“It’s a wise investment. When these students graduate, they’ll become part of the Texas workforce,” he said.

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said it was unfair for students, many of whom arrived in the country as children, to be punished for the actions of their parents.

Lawmakers need to “have a little more heart and a hell of a lot more Texas common sense,” she said.

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See this is where some people are so biased and clouded in their thinking they operate on the assumption and presumptions that Americans are going to continue to allow illegal aliens to occupy our country unimpeded. These students should not have a dime of US taxpayer money invested in their education, they should be deported with the parents who brought them here.

These students are dragging down our public schools and diluting the education resources available to American Kids, both in public education and in colleges. In colleges, they're using their minority status as Hispanics and other categories to rank equal to our minority citizens and rank above non-minority students, which means they're stealing seats in college from American Kids and denying them their rights and opportunities for college degrees and the good jobs that flow with those degrees.

Providing illegal aliens with in-state tuition simply makes it easier for illegal aliens to steal seats in colleges and universities from Texas Kids and other American Kids. Why would any Texan or any American support such a thing to benefit illegal aliens who under our laws are to be deported with their parents?

In fact, there should be absolutely no college admission to any person in our country in violation of US immigration law. There should be no admission of illegal aliens to public schools or any other public facility of any kind for any purpose, except a jail, detention center or court building for a deportation hearing.

What is wrong with you people who would be so daft as to believe that illegal aliens who graduate from our colleges will become part of the Texas workforce or any workforce in the United States when under our laws they will be deported? Why would you want them to become part of the Texas workforce or any workforce in the United States when we have 20 million unemployed Americans and millions of our own graduates from public schools and colleges entering our workforce every year?

The people who support in-state tuition are the fool's pawn.

Senator Garcia, you are not considering the American children at all. This is why those with Hispanic names (ex: Gutierrez) should not be elected, because they make adverse decisions affecting natural born Americans.

Most classes have some type of size limit. That class seat should belong to a Texan, not a Mexican. Out of state tuition assures the Texan a better shot to get it, that is taking care of the home folk.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/texas-first...act%92-268620/ (In 2001)

In 2001, Texas lawmakers passed (almost unanimously) and Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a measure allowing certain immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children to attend state colleges and universities at the tuition rates charged to legal in-state residents...