Thread: VA: Bill on illegals, college tuition goes to Senate

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-52038

An amendment to the original bill that creates an exemption pushed the proposal through.

By Mason Adams
(804) 697-1584

RICHMOND -- Call it the carrot-and-stick effect.

By adding a last-minute amendment, Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, achieved a political coup Thursday by winning praise and a unanimous vote in favor of a Senate bill that previously had been criticized as divisive and xenophobic.

Senate Bill 677 would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at state colleges. Its chances at passing through the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Education and Health were considered slim.

But Hanger then added an amendment providing an exemption for students who, as the children of illegal immigrants, have resided in Virginia for three years, graduated from high school, paid income tax or make too little money to qualify, and can prove they're in the process of applying for citizenship.

"I think actually an opportunity emerged here this morning," Hanger said.

"If we adopt this, I think we can make a statement that will require there be an appropriate screening [of students applying to public colleges]. But it also provides some assurances to these children who have been educated in Virginia, who came over with illegal immigrant parents and have not been regularized.

"There is an incentive here for them to become citizens of the United States, and that's what it's all about," Hanger said.

After the amendment was added, the committee voted 15-0 to report the bill to the full Senate floor.

Before Thursday's committee meeting, chances for SB 677's passage looked slim. The Higher Education subcommittee, consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans, including Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, voted unanimously to recommend it be killed. But the last-minute amendment changed the minds not only of all four senators, but two Latino lawyers who'd come to Richmond to criticize the bill.

"We came up here and our objective was to oppose this bill," said Andres Tobar, chairman of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations. "But in light of the amendment ... we're delighted with the step on a bipartisan basis that was taken by the committee today to support this."

Walter Tejada, an Arlington County supervisor, praised Hanger as well.

"We do remain very concerned about the anti-immigrant sentiment that this General Assembly has created with ... legislation that seek to divide communities," Tejada said. "So we particularly applaud Sen. Hanger ... I hope that other legislators pay attention to the kind of leadership being shown here."

Hanger said he got the idea for the amendment after reading that Gov. Tim Kaine would sign the bill if it included such a provision.

While the governor's staff said it would need to take a look at the final version of the bill, it supports the amended version that emerged from the Senate committee.

"It strikes me that this amendment seeks to do what Governor Kaine has been advocating," said Kevin Hall, the governor's spokesman. "And that is seeking to find an appropriate balance so the children of undocumented workers are not singled out and denied opportunities here in the commonwealth."

The trick will be ensuring the amended SB 677 remains intact on the Senate floor, and then in the House. The latter, Hanger said, is likely to be the greater challenge.

The House has already passed two bills that would affect illegal immigrants attempting to go to state colleges:

n HB 1050, which would prohibit public colleges from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants.

n HB 262, which would prevent illegal or undocumented immigrants from attending state colleges at all.

Hanger told the Senate Committee on Education and Health that if the House strips the amendment from his bill, he'll fight to get it reattached in a conference committee. Otherwise, he said, he'll have the bill killed for the year.

It looks like this bill WILL establish in-state tuition for illegal aliens with that amend. Can some of you check on this in VA?

Does VA currently have in-state tuition for illegal aliens? If not, we need to defeat this bill with that amend in it.

W