Hearing stirs up issue of illegals

By Ben Ready
September 2, 2006
The Daily Times-Call

GREELEY — The Dream Act, a provision of Senate Bill 2611, would discriminate against U.S. citizens and encourage immigrants to remain undocumented, law professor Kris Kobach says.

Not so, says a backer of the proposal. The Dream Act would encourage the children of illegal immigrants, who are illegal themselves, to do “exactly what we, as a society have asked: go to school, stay out of trouble, succeed,” Jared Polis, vice chairman of the Colorado Board of Education, said Friday during a congressional hearing on illegal immigration and the costs of higher education.

The hearing took place at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

Polis and Kobach, a professor of law at the University of Missouri, were panelists at the hearing, led by U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

The Dream Act would repeal a 1993 law that prohibits states from offering lower in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants unless those states also offer the rates to U.S. citizens from other states. States could offer in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who came to the United States before they turned 16, have lived here for five years or more, and have graduated from high school.

Kobach testified Friday that the Dream Act would not only discriminate against U.S. citizens and place an unfair tax burden on them; it also would encourage immigrants to remain undocumented.

Ten states, including California and Texas, offer in-state tuition to undocumented students but deny in-state tuition to out-of-state legal U.S. residents, he said.

“Aliens are sent this message: ‘We encourage you to violate the law,’” Kobach said.

Polis, though, said many children of illegal immigrants consider America their only home and English their only fluent language.

“(The Dream Act) represents a simple acknowledgement that our immigration failures and the mistakes of adults ought not be visited on children who have done nothing wrong,” Polis said.

Following the hearing, McKeon and U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., traveled to Loveland for another hearing, this one on immigration employment verification and work-site enforcement. Both hearings were hosted by Musgrave.

Ben Ready can be reached at 303-684-5326, or by e-mail at bready@times-call.com.

Source: http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=9650