After nearly two hours of heated testimony during a packed meeting, the House Higher Education Committee held off voting on a bill that would bar illegal immigrants from attending all Georgia public colleges.
Chairman Carl Rogers said Tuesday's meeting was designed to serve only as a hearing on House Bill 59, although that wasn't clear at the start. Rogers said he plans to meet with college leaders and others to look at adding flexibility to the bill. The earliest the committee could vote would be in two weeks, he said.
"I don't think we're ready, and I don't think the bill is ready," Rogers, R-Gainesville, said after the meeting. "It's a very hard issue. It's a very emotional issue."
The bill would prohibit illegal immigrants from enrolling in any of the 35 colleges in the University System of Georgia and the 25 colleges in the Technical College System of Georgia. Colleges would be required to run students' names through a federal database to make sure they are in the country lawfully. Only if they are would they be allowed to attend a public college.
Rep. Tom Rice, R-Norcross, who sponsored the bill, said it guarantees illegal immigrants don't take seats away from those who are here legally.
"I feel that students who are here without legal documentation should find opportunities elsewhere to get their education," Rice said.
While Rice and a couple of other speakers supported the bill, the majority at the meeting were against it.
Keish Kim, an illegal immigrant who graduated from Centennial High in Roswell in 2009, said she wants to be a lawyer but is in learning limbo. She said she was accepted to the state's most competitive schools, but couldn't attend because she couldn't afford out-of-state tuition.
"This is about dreams; it's about goals," Kim said as her voice broke with emotion. "I really hope that this state government doesn't stop and halt dreams."
The crowd applauded Kim, but they were subdued during much of the meeting. Rogers earlier warned them that security would oust anyone who acted out.
Dozens of students attended, sitting and standing silently along the back of the room. They wore scarlet U's to represent the stigma and denied opportunities "undocumented" students face.
The committee approved the bill last year, but it was not voted on by the full House. Rogers was not chairman of the committee at that time.
University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby urged the committee to vote against the bill and instead let the system follow through with new policies that went into effect this past fall.
Those policies include barring illegal immigrants from attending any college that has turned away academically qualified students. The affected colleges are the state's most elite: University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Georgia Health Sciences and Georgia College & State universities. Illegal immigrants may attend the other 30 colleges, but they must pay the higher out-of-state tuition rates.
Of the system’s 318,000 students, about 300 are "undocumented," Huckaby said. Students are classified this way if they don't produce documents to show they have a lawful presence. They may or may not be in the country legally.
Last year, the system had about 500 undocumented students. The decline shows the new rules are working, he said.
"I respectfully ask you to allow our policy to work to determine if it addresses your concerns," Huckaby said.
He noted that only Alabama, Arizona and South Carolina ban illegal immigrants from attending any public college. About a dozen states, including Texas, allow these students to attend and pay in-state tuition.
Graduating more students is one of the University System's key goals and will help Georgia prosper, he said.
"Even for those who are here through no fault of their own, it makes sense to me that we should educate them to the highest level possible," Huckaby said.
Rice said the University System's new rules are a first step, but that it's not enough. While he sympathized with students brought to this country illegally by their parents, he said they shouldn't take spots away from others.
"The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people who came here and were naturalized and went through the process and became citizens of this state and their kids deserve the same opportunity for that one seat that may be filled by somebody here illegally," he said.
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