As Recess Approaches, Immigrant Tuition Discount Bill Languishes
By Amy Lambiaso for the State House News Service
       Immigration groups Thursday said the issue of providing discounted, in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants has become a “political football,” while lawmakers acknowledged that politics has in fact delayed action on the bill.
       The issue has divided lawmakers for several months, but has been the source of fierce lobbying by supporters who are trying to drum up enough votes to overcome a promised veto from Gov. Mitt Romney. Two dozen students and advocates spent part of the day rallying on Beacon Hill today, asking for immediate action on the legislation.
       “We want these students to spend the next year studying, not advocating,” said Edwin Argueta, community organizer for the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council, during a rally outside the State House. “Stop playing political football with the lives of our kids.”
       Senate President Robert Travaglini, a supporter of the bill, said today that he believes two thirds of the senators support the measure, the amount needed to override a gubernatorial veto. But lawmakers in the House, where the bill has sat on the calendar for two months, say supporters do not have enough votes to prevail over a veto.
       House leaders support the $8 million bill, but dropped it from their budget earlier this year in a concession to opponents, who say they have enough votes to sustain Romney’s veto.
       “When you see it come to the floor, it’ll have the two thirds votes,” said House Second Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing (D-Boston), who supports the bill. “I’ll work for it to have that.”
       Some lawmakers say many of their colleagues are hesitant to vote on the issue, given the Republican Party’s mailings last fall that questioned the votes on incumbents on past votes in support of in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants.
       “It’s a political football that in some circles is too hot,” said Rep. Paul Kujawski (D-Webster), a supporter of the bill. Kujawski said House Ways and Means Vice Chairwoman Marie St. Fleur (D-Dorchester) has been working “tirelessly” to garner support for the proposal. “That’s her baby and she wants to see that done.”
House Minority Leader Bradley Jones (R-North Reading), who opposes the bill, said Thursday morning that House Republicans are ready and willing to debate the legislation at any time.
       “I’m perfectly happy to let it come to a vote on the floor,” Jones said. “If the Speaker wants to take this up, he’s in a position to take it up when he wants to.”
Timothy O’Brien, executive director of the state’s GOP Party that was responsible for the mailings, said their opposition is not an anti-immigrant position, but one of protecting taxpayers and the public’s safety.
       “We don’t feel that we should be giving tuition breaks to people who are breaking the law,” O’Brien said. “Certain individuals don’t qualify for this and the taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill.”
       Rep. James Vallee (D-Franklin), House Ways and Means assistant vice chairman and an opponent of the bill, said he hasn’t been working against it, but believes it will be “very difficult” for supporters to gain the votes needed.
        “I don’t see that the votes are there,” Vallee said, adding that he believes there needs to be overall immigrant reform to help immigrants gain legal status with the federal government. “At some point you have to say, if you’re not here legally, you can’t have the same benefits. It gets to be a public safety issue.”
       More than two dozen students gathered for today’s rally in the sweltering heat, vowing to continue fighting for immigrants who are not legal citizens, but have a Massachusetts high school degree, to pay the same amount of tuition at the state’s public colleges as their classmates. Holding signs and chanting, “same state – same rate,” the group defended the immigrant population as an economic engine for the state and the future of the state’s workforce.
       Tuition rates vary for each school. For instance, Massachusetts residents pay $1,714 for tuition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, while out-of-state residents are charged $9,937.
       “We are hard-working, law abiding citizens,” said Alexandra Pineros-Shields, noting the recent report from the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth that showed the state’s immigrant population is nearly double what it was 25 years ago and accounts for 17 percent of the state’s workforce.