Doyle repeats request for in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants
Wheeler News Service
Published Monday, March 23, 2009

Gov. Jim Doyle has again asked lawmakers to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition at the University of Wisconsin, as long as they graduate from Wisconsin high schools.

It’s the fourth straight time Doyle has put the measure in his proposed state budget.

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Republicans took it out the first three times. But it might not fare any better with Democrats in control.

Assembly Colleges Committee chair Kim Hixson of Whitewater says a 1996 federal law barred states from giving college residency benefits to illegal immigrants unless other U.S. citizens get the same treatment regardless of where they live.

Hixson says it would mean that a youngster from Montana could get in-state tuition and that’s something the state cannot afford.

The measure is being challenged in California which is among 10 students that grant in-state tuition to certain illegal immigrants.

Linton Joaquin of the National Immigration Law Center says Doyle’s proposal should not pose a problem because immigrants must graduate from Wisconsin high schools to be eligible.

Meanwhile, GOP colleges’ committee member Mark Gottlieb of Port Washington says the measure should be taken off the table until the federal law becomes clearer.

With the recession, Gottlieb says the state cannot the extra benefit right now.

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