Tuition Break, Citizenship For Illegal Immigrants

A bill to grant illegal immigrants instate college tuition and automatic United States citizenship has been reintroduced in Congress with the kind of bipartisan support it needs to become law.

Elected officials from both parties have recently participated in public rallies supporting the bill that basically fizzled in the House and Senate after its first introduction in late 2005. Its newfound support, however, makes its eminent passage a reality.

The Dream Act would permit states to grant the much lower instate college tuition rate to illegal immigrants and allow them to remain in the U.S. legally – with a path to citizenship– as long as they arrived in the country before the age of 16. The bill was reintroduced earlier this year and advocates believe this time it will become law.

In fact, at a recent rally in their home district two popular Florida Republican Congressmen encouraged their colleagues to finally pass the Dream Act. U.S. Representatives Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, joined several illegal immigrant high school students at a public south Florida university to point out all the good things about the law.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, also a co-sponsor of the bill, reasons that the kids didn’t make the decision to come here and therefore they should get a break. Who does it benefit if they can’t get an education, the veteran congressman pointedly asked at the Dream Act pep rally.

The so-called Latino civil rights group National Council of La Raza claims that every year about 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools and they are subsequently denied the opportunity to share in the “American Dream” of obtaining an affordable college education due to their immigration status.

One California blogger that says Illegal aliens have flooded the state points out that legislators have rushed to provide instate college tuition to illegals, unconcerned about denying an education to citizens. A sarcastic letter written by an Iowa resident to his senator says that, among the benefits in gaining illegal status, would be that his son would receive “instate” tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States.