Associated Press- Rhodes Island: A state higher education board on Monday approved a measure that would allow students who immigrated to the United States illegally to pay in-state tuition rates at Rhode Island's public colleges and universities after the General Assembly declined to take up the issue.
The Board of Governors for Higher Education heard hours of public testimony on the policy change from dozens of speakers at a meeting that at times featured cheers, boos and heckling from opponents and supporters -- both of whom said their position was the fairer one.
The board, 11 of whose 13 members were present, voted unanimously for the measure at the end of the meeting at the Community College of Rhode Island's Warwick campus.
Board member Eva Mancuso, chairwoman of the committee that gave the preliminary green light to the policy change, said just before the vote that the issue had been studied extensively. She called in-state tuition for illegal immigrants "fair" and "logical."
Under the new policy, in-state rates will be available only to illegal immigrants' children who have attended a high school in the state for at least three years and graduated or received an equivalent degree. They also have to commit to seek legal status as soon as they are eligible; they will lose the resident tuition if they do not, under an amendment adopted Monday night. The new policy takes effect in 2012.
Currently, in-state undergraduate tuition at the University of Rhode Island is $9,824, compared to $25,912 for out-of-state students. The state has two other public higher education institutions: the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.
The General Assembly did not act on a bill this year that would have granted the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition -- legislation that has been introduced every year for years.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee threw his support behind the board measure Sunday, saying it would improve the state's "intellectual and cultural life" and allow more Rhode Islanders to attend college. In addition, those developments would make for a stronger work force and would boost the state's flagging economy, he said.
"All that separates these young people from the thousands of other students who gain entry to Rhode Island's public colleges and universities each year is the place where they were born -- a factor none of us can control," Chafee, an independent, said in a statement.
Several speakers Monday raised objections to the board taking any action at all, with some calling the meeting a sham and saying its unelected members would be circumventing the legislature if they changed the policy. No other state that has approved in-state tuition for illegal immigrants did so outside a legislative act.
"You have no business doing this. Period," state Rep. Doreen Costa, R-North Kingstown, told the board.
Delores Issler of the group Ocean State Tea Party in Action spoke against the policy change, saying her daughter, a citizen, has been unemployed since February and is struggling with an in-state tuition hike. It would be "unconscionable" to take "one thin dime and use it for anyone other than an American citizen," she said.
Other opponents said offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants would reward illegal behavior.
Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, who testified before the board, said before the meeting that the policy change would be akin to "aiding and abetting" illegal immigrants. He called it unfair to students paying higher out-of-state rates.
"I've met a lot of these students," Gorman said. "My heart goes out to them, but their parents put them in this situation."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 12 states, including Connecticut, have laws allowing the children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state rates if they meet certain requirements. Several states have also passed legislation barring in-state benefits for illegal immigrants.
A federal bill known as the DREAM Act that would allow illegal-immigrant students to remain in the country legally has repeatedly fallen short of the votes needed to pass Congress. Students would be granted legal status providing they were under the age of 16 when they entered the U.S., have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school.
At the start of Monday's meeting, supporters unfurled a banner declaring: "Our Dreams Can't Wait. We Want to Pay Tuition." Among those who spoke in favor of the policy change was Amanda Pereira, a freshman at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and a graduate of Classical High School in Providence.
Pereira, who has testified repeatedly at the Statehouse in favor of the Rhode Island bill, urged the board to adopt the new policy. She came with her family to the U.S. from Brazil when she was 6.
Now 18, she was granted permanent residency last spring along with her parents and brother -- a process she says took over a decade. But she has kept up the fight, saying she could have hit an educational dead end herself if her green card hadn't come through.
"Basically, it's just a matter of equality. The students that have been here and have worked hard deserve the same educational opportunities as those who were born here," she told The Associated Press before the meeting.
The Board of Governors for Higher Education heard hours of public testimony on the policy change from dozens of speakers at a meeting that at times featured cheers, boos and heckling from opponents and supporters -- both of whom said their position was the fairer one.
The board, 11 of whose 13 members were present, voted unanimously for the measure at the end of the meeting at the Community College of Rhode Island's Warwick campus.
Board member Eva Mancuso, chairwoman of the committee that gave the preliminary green light to the policy change, said just before the vote that the issue had been studied extensively. She called in-state tuition for illegal immigrants "fair" and "logical."
Under the new policy, in-state rates will be available only to illegal immigrants' children who have attended a high school in the state for at least three years and graduated or received an equivalent degree. They also have to commit to seek legal status as soon as they are eligible; they will lose the resident tuition if they do not, under an amendment adopted Monday night. The new policy takes effect in 2012.
Currently, in-state undergraduate tuition at the University of Rhode Island is $9,824, compared to $25,912 for out-of-state students. The state has two other public higher education institutions: the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.
The General Assembly did not act on a bill this year that would have granted the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition -- legislation that has been introduced every year for years.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee threw his support behind the board measure Sunday, saying it would improve the state's "intellectual and cultural life" and allow more Rhode Islanders to attend college. In addition, those developments would make for a stronger work force and would boost the state's flagging economy, he said.
"All that separates these young people from the thousands of other students who gain entry to Rhode Island's public colleges and universities each year is the place where they were born -- a factor none of us can control," Chafee, an independent, said in a statement.
Several speakers Monday raised objections to the board taking any action at all, with some calling the meeting a sham and saying its unelected members would be circumventing the legislature if they changed the policy. No other state that has approved in-state tuition for illegal immigrants did so outside a legislative act.
"You have no business doing this. Period," state Rep. Doreen Costa, R-North Kingstown, told the board.
Delores Issler of the group Ocean State Tea Party in Action spoke against the policy change, saying her daughter, a citizen, has been unemployed since February and is struggling with an in-state tuition hike. It would be "unconscionable" to take "one thin dime and use it for anyone other than an American citizen," she said.
Other opponents said offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants would reward illegal behavior.
Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, who testified before the board, said before the meeting that the policy change would be akin to "aiding and abetting" illegal immigrants. He called it unfair to students paying higher out-of-state rates.
"I've met a lot of these students," Gorman said. "My heart goes out to them, but their parents put them in this situation."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 12 states, including Connecticut, have laws allowing the children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state rates if they meet certain requirements. Several states have also passed legislation barring in-state benefits for illegal immigrants.
A federal bill known as the DREAM Act that would allow illegal-immigrant students to remain in the country legally has repeatedly fallen short of the votes needed to pass Congress. Students would be granted legal status providing they were under the age of 16 when they entered the U.S., have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school.
At the start of Monday's meeting, supporters unfurled a banner declaring: "Our Dreams Can't Wait. We Want to Pay Tuition." Among those who spoke in favor of the policy change was Amanda Pereira, a freshman at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and a graduate of Classical High School in Providence.
Pereira, who has testified repeatedly at the Statehouse in favor of the Rhode Island bill, urged the board to adopt the new policy. She came with her family to the U.S. from Brazil when she was 6.
Now 18, she was granted permanent residency last spring along with her parents and brother -- a process she says took over a decade. But she has kept up the fight, saying she could have hit an educational dead end herself if her green card hadn't come through.
"Basically, it's just a matter of equality. The students that have been here and have worked hard deserve the same educational opportunities as those who were born here," she told The Associated Press before the meeting.
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