A bill to grant illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates dies when the Legislature recesses.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published May 10, 2004
PLANT CITY - Like other seniors near graduation, Jaqueline Sanchez dreamed of college.
The student who scored A's and B's, excelled at art and physics, and played a fierce game of volleyball longed to start classes toward becoming an elementary school teacher.
That was two years ago. Sanchez, now 20, is still waiting.
This spring, she and thousands of other students like her in Florida thought the wait was over. But on April 30, they learned their lives will remain in limbo.
A bill that would have granted in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants who graduate from Florida high schools died after House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, didn't call it up for a vote before the Legislature recessed for the year.
For many immigrants, the difference of thousands of dollars a year keeps them out of college, despite earning honors at Florida schools.
"(The bill) would change my life, totally," Sanchez said.
Critics charge the bill would reward the students' parents for breaking the law.
Supporters, who have included Gov. Jeb Bush, say it's time Florida follows the lead of a handful of other states. The public wins in the long run, supporters argue. If students can get a higher education, they'll earn more, pay taxes and likely won't collect government assistance.
They hope the measure, whose companion passed the Senate, will have better luck next year in the House.
While she waits, Sanchez has worked at a laundry service, as a waitress and as a teacher's aide.
"If you don't have a good education," she said, "you can't get a good job."
Reality hits senior year
Some are still in diapers when they come here. Others are old enough to walk and hold someone's hand. Others are entering the awkward stage of junior high.
Immigrant children are usually brought to the United States by their parents or family members. Here, they have a right to an education up to 12th grade.
Some become honors students, valedictorians, athletes, trying to escape the paths of their parents in Florida's orange groves or construction jobs. They master English and American pop culture, while memories of their birth country fade.
But when they reach their senior year - as peers excitedly flip through college brochures - these students undergo an embarrassing awakening.
Their education could likely end.
"I think of the other people that I graduated with or my neighbors in the same situation or the little kids that live around me, and I think whenever they finish high school, what are they going to do?" Sanchez said.
Sanchez's family brought her to the United States from Mexico when she was 15. She moved to Plant City to be with her brother and other relatives, but her younger brother and mother stayed in Texas.
Her brother, who graduates from high school this year and wants to study medicine, might have better luck with college in Texas. The Lone Star State is one of seven that have passed similar legislation granting in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, along with California, Oklahoma, Illinois, New York, Utah and Washington.
Florida looked as if it could be next until the last week of the legislative session, when Byrd did not call the measure up for a vote.
Tom Denham, press secretary for Byrd, said the speaker had opposed some original drafts of the bill but favored more recent changes.
"I don't think he had as many problems with it in its amended" form, he said.
The bill was one of many that didn't get called for a vote in the crunch to finish legislative business, Denham said.
Activists hope the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Juan Carlos Zapata, R-Miami, will have more success next year.
"We believe that passing this bill is the right thing to do," said David Skovholt, coordinator of the Florida Immigration Coalition. "Many of the students have grown up in these communities the majority of their lives and want to go to college and become contributing members of the community."
Congress works on status
Other legislation is winding through Congress that could help illegal immigrants work legally once they finish college. The DREAM Act, if passed by Congress, would grant residency and possibly citizenship to students who graduate from U.S. high schools and satisfy other criteria, such as completing postsecondary education. Residency would allow them to work legally. The federal bill also would make it easier for states to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants - a difference of $10,000 a year at the University of Florida.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, which favors stricter immigration controls, opposes such changes. Help to illegal immigrants takes resources away from U.S. citizens and rewards them for breaking the law, he said.
"Admittedly, these kids are placed in an awkward position," Mehlman said. "But do members of society on the other hand have to dig deeper into their pockets or sacrifice their own kids' education?"
Society is not shelling out tuition for these students, said Dan Pollock, a lobbyist who pushed for the tuition bill on behalf of the American Jewish Committee.
If immigrant students can't get in-state tuition, "they don't go" to college, he said. They stay and work under-the-table jobs and get married.
"We're not giving them a discount," he said, but a chance at a better life. Chances are, they will not leave the United States to return to a birthplace they barely remember, he said.
"We're taking a group of students who want to go to college, should go to college, could better themselves and become professionals and fulfill all their potential but are in a situation where they have to pay four times the amount" as someone who sat next to them in high school, Pollock said.
While she waits for next year's legislative session, Sanchez decided to enroll in Hillsborough Community College for the fall. The only thing she might be able to afford is a computer class for about $250, she said. The English literature course and other core classes are more than she can afford, about $650 each.
At this rate, one class at a time, a college degree might be years away. But she needs to start, she said.
"I'm taking that class so I can do something right now."
