Immigrants Cap Tour Confident That Bill Will Reach Governor
By Jim O’Sullivan STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

       Wrapping up a six-day, statewide tour aimed at building popular support, advocates of a measure granting discounted in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants said they were confident the bill would reach the governor’s desk.
       The proposal, included in last week’s House budget as an outside section linked to public higher education funding, would allow all students who graduate from a local high school after attending for three years to pay the same rate as resident citizens at public higher education institutions.
       The House plan covers those without Social Security numbers as well as immigrants with temporary protected status, but requires immigrant public higher education applicants to file affidavits stating that they have filed an application to become a citizen or permanent U.S. resident, or will file an application "at the earliest opportunity the individual is eligible to
do so."
       If the Senate, which adopted the proposal unanimously last year, decides to join the House this year, the measure would proceed to Gov. Mitt Romney, who prefers investing in legal immigrants’ education, and last year vetoed a similar plan.
       State-funded colleges and universities require starkly different tuition
rates for residents and non-residents. Greenfield Community College, in the Pioneer Valley, charges $26 per credit hour for residents, while
non-residents pay $281 per credit hour. And while Bay State residents spend $1,714 in tuition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
non-residents shell out $9,937.
       Immigrants and their advocates gathered just outside the Senate chamber Thursday, capping a six-day tour of 10 cities and towns, including a stop in Rhode Island.
Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing, a bill proponent, told the
students returning from the campaign trail to look at the State House
portraits of statesmen dating back to the Commonwealth’s founding, and
think of those men’s ancestors.
       “Understand that they were not legal immigrants,” said Rushing, a South End Democrat. “They were illegal immigrants.”
Supporters of the bill say the substantial differences in tuition rates put
immigrants at disadvantage as they try to establish roots in Massachusetts.
       “If it doesn’t pass, I can go, but my friends around here are so stressed out,” said Salem Aklog, an Ethiopian immigrant who is a sophomore at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. “Even if they are illegal, they grew up here.”
       “This bill will not give any immigrant students a break or a discount,”
said Carlos, an unemployed East Boston High School graduate who cited
“immigration reasons” for not providing his last name. “All we’re asking is
to pay the same rate as any resident of the Commonwealth.”
       Romney vetoed a similar measure that the Legislature approved last year, and House lawmakers did not mount an override attempt. Asked why not, Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing said, “Different administration in the House,” a reference to former Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and his successor, Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who generally holds more liberal stances on social issues and has pledged a more open process than the one orchestrated by Finneran.
       DiMasi spokeswoman Kimberly Haberlin declined to speculate about DiMasi’s enthusiasm for a potential veto override, but said he supports the language in the House budget.
       “It’s extremely relevant to the higher education line item,” Haberlin said in a phone interview. “One, we can generate much-needed revenues for our state colleges and universities, and, two, we have an opportunity to make an investment in our workforce.”
       While some representatives have filed amendments to strike the measure from the budget, one of its lead advocates said the House appears poised to embrace it by a wide margin.
       Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrants and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), said he was “very confident” of the two-thirds support necessary to override a veto in both chambers.
The Senate that voted 39-0 in favor of a similar measure last year has only three new senators.
       According to communications director Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney has proposed boosting spending on adult basic education for documented immigrants, recommending $35.8 million in next year’s budget, a 30 percent increase, and higher than the House’s $29.4 million proposal.
      "The governor believes it's important that we support legal immigrants in achieving the American Dream," Fehrnstrom said. "But no matter how well intentioned, we think it's a mistake to extend state benefits to people in the country illegally."
       Calling the measure “taxpayer subsidy for illegal immigration,” Rep.
Jeffrey Perry (R-Barnstable), sponsor of an amendment calling for its
removal, said he objected both on its substance and in the way it was
packaged in the House budget.
      “By using the back pages of the $24 billion appropriations bill, we’re
really circumventing the legislative process, and denying not only citizens
but public interest groups and legislators themselves the opportunity of
the committee process and the chance to ask those very tough questions,” Perry said in a telephone interview.
       Noorani estimated that 400 immigrants per year would take advantage of the tuition break, based on a study conducted by the Urban Institute, a national research group. He said the discounted tuition rates paid by immigrants would offset the discounts themselves.
       “This is not going to force the universities or the community colleges to hire staff,” Noorani said. “They’re not going to have to build a new
building. They’re going to be able to finally fill their classrooms.”
       Perry said he was concerned that some Massachusetts citizens would face stiffer competition for college acceptance.
       “It’s reasonable to conclude that we would have a large influx of
additional students so that legal Massachusetts students would not be able to get into the school of their choice,” he said. “It’s reasonable to
assume that some Mass. citizens would be displaced.”