Immigration Bill Grants Illegals In-state Tuition

After the Senate Judiciary Committee approved and distributed a proposal for granting legal status to many undocumented aliens, conservatives were alarmed to discover that the 471-page bill makes illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition costs.

Under the proposal, illegals could pay the low tuition charged students who attend state universities in their home state, while legal residents of the U.S. would still be required to pay the much higher costs charged students who attend schools outside their state, the Washington Times reports.

"This means that while American citizens from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusetts have to pay out-of-state tuition rates if they send their kids to the University of Virginia or the University of Alabama, people who have illegally immigrated into the country do not," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

"How much sense does that make, to have people here illegally and they have more benefits than those who are here legally?"

Nine states allow illegal aliens to pay the in-state tuition rates, but the provision is under challenge in those states.

If the new bill passes "the American taxpayers will be forced to pay for illegal aliens to replace their own children in the limited seats in college," said William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration.

"Professional polls in North Carolina show over 81 percent opposition to in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

"It is bad enough the Senate is proposing guest worker amnesty. Now they want us to pay college tuition for illegal aliens!"

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, supports the proposal, saying "it will free eligible students from the constant fear of deportation."

But Gheen declared: "It is a national tragedy the U.S. Senate is even considering giving these finite resources to foreign nationals that broke our laws."

Gheen said information on how Americans can tell lawmakers of their opposition to the proposal can be found at the group's Web site, http://www.alipac.us.