Tuition vote angers students
Panel recommends repeal of law allowing immigrants in-state fees
"It made me angry," said Sarah, a junior at the University of Utah who asked not to be identified by her real name because she is undocumented. She's paying in-state tuition because of a law passed in 2002 granting it to undocumented students.
"There's a whole generation of these kids in the state and nation," she said. "One day this generation . . . will have kids of their own. The Legislature will have to account to our community, even if it's in the future."
Those children would be natural citizens of the United States. It's the "sandwich" generation — largely children who were brought here by their parents and who have grown up in the American culture and enjoyed the benefits of public education — that is being targeted by the higher-education legislation.
Sarah has spent most of her life in the United States and, as the 2002 tuition law requires, attended high school in Utah for three years and graduated. She is among an estimated 85,000 undocumented immigrants living in Utah, according to Pew Hispanic Center estimates for 2003-04. She's also among an estimated 169 undocumented students who would have to pay out-of-state tuition if lawmakers repeal that law.
Donnelson has said the bills are an effort to discourage illegal immigration. The tuition bill, he said, is meant to send a message to Washington lawmakers to "get off their whatever" and work on immigration reform.
"It's a burden on the state. What do we do?" Donnelson said. "It's illegal to employ them. So we educate them for what? It's a false dream."
The 2002 bill required three years' attendance in a Utah high school for eligibility for in-state tuition.
Michael Clara, spokesman for the Utah Hispanic/Latino Legislative Task Force, said it's unusual that Thursday's meeting wasn't opened to public comment. Normally, he said, "it seems like you get heard."
But for many, Thursday's meeting seemed like just another example of lawmakers ignoring a rapidly growing community of Latino immigrants.
"We got railroaded without any public comment," said Robert Gallegos, president of RAZ-PAC.
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