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Student
tuition act debated by Congress
By Luis Peña
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
The Student Adjustment
Act currently awaiting congressional debate would reverse
current law that forbids residential tuition fees for undocumented
aliens who wish to pursue higher education.
House of Representatives Bill No.1918, the Student Adjustment
Act, would amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996, which forbids states from allowing
in-state tuition rates for undocumented aliens unless they
offer the same in state tuition to out of state students.
The bill would also allow these students to apply for permanent
residency, according to Julia Mossimino, Legislative Counsel
to Rep. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills, co-sponsor of the
bill.
“He saw a huge need for it. He doesn’t like to see young people’s
potential cutoff when they are unable to continue their education,”
Mossimino said.
The Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of
1996 penalized states that gave in-state tuition rates to
undocumented aliens. Those states would then have to
apply the in state tuition to any U.S. citizen regardless
of what state they are from, according to Mossimino.
Cal State Long Beach has no formal position on House Bill
1918 but it would more than likely support it according to
Associate Vice President of Student Services Alan Nishio.
“It would complement Assembly Bill. 540 and it would make
them [undocumented students affected by act] eligible for
federal financial aid,” Nishio said.
The state of California enacted Assembly Bill 540 to get around
the 1996 Act and it applies to the Cal State University system
and to the California Community Colleges, according to Mossimino.
“It [Assembly Bill 540] applies to anybody who attended high
school in California for three years and graduated from high
school in California,” said Gloria Kapp, Senior Director of
Admissions and Systems.
Assembly Bill 540 does not make undocumented students state
residents, nor does it make them eligible for financial aid,
but it does make them eligible for in-state tuition rates,
according to Kapp.
There is similar legislation to Assembly Bill 540 in the states
of Texas, Utah and New York.
“The reason that
the federal law is still necessary is that they [undocumented
alien students] are still in an undocumented immigration status
when they graduate from college. Now they are here and
they are still undocumented and they still have to make a
choice of working illegally and that’s not what we want them
to be doing,” Mossimino said.
The Student Adjustment Act would allow long-term undocumented
aliens to
adjust to a legal permanent resident status, according to
Mossimino.
House Bill 1918 only applies to those that are under 21 years
of age with a four-year grace period if they are over 21 and
are currently in school or have graduated. Applicants
must also be of good moral character and they must have resided
in the U.S. for a period of five years, Mossimino said.
“It [House Bill 1918] seems to give preference over undocumented
students versus out of state students. Probably something
that we wouldn’t support,” said Kevin Ngyuen Executive Director
of the American Civil Rights Coalition, which was co-founded
by Ward Connerly, a proponent of Proposition 209 the anti-affirmative
action initiative.
House Bill 1918 does not liberalize in-state tuition polices
for both undocumented and out-of-state students and that the
grace period in the legislation should probably be extended
but that the coalition sees “potential for a fair policy,”
Ngyuen said.
“We oppose it [House Bill 1918] very strongly because the
feds are pushing the states to give illegal aliens in state
tuition which is total discrimination against U.S. citizens,”
said Barbara Coe, spokesperson for the California Coalition
for Immigration Reform, co-authors of Proposition 187, the
initiative to deny state benefits to undocumented residents.
“These are good
kids they have done nothing wrong and I think that’s the basic
message why we are doing this,” Mossimino said
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