A Kansas law currently allows some students who are in this country illegally to pay in-state tuition at state community colleges and universities. Around 650 students are now using the program, but a Kansas House committee is considering a bill that would take away that benefit. Lawmakers heard testimony on the proposal Tuesday.
Republican Rep. John Rubin, from Shawnee, is against the idea of giving in-state tuition to the children of immigrants living here illegally. He says the policy has helped turn Kansas into a “veritable sanctuary state.”
“It makes no sense to me to promise our citizens that we will enforce our borders and enforce the rules of law on immigration, then turn around and reward those who break those very laws to come to this state,” says Rubin.
Rubin wants to get rid of the law because he says it encourages people living in the United States illegally to come to Kansas. Rubin and others also referenced the president’s immigration actions during their testimony, saying Obama is circumventing the Constitution.
“Just because the president has done that, it doesn’t mean that we here in Kansas must acquiesce,” says Rubin.
Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach says the 2004 Kansas law creates an uneven playing field between students brought in illegally as children and others who are forced to pay out-of-state tuition.
“It’s unfair to U.S. citizens who live in Nebraska or Missouri and are paying three times as much in tuition. It’s unfair to the legal aliens who are doing it the right way,” says Kobach.
But on the other side of the argument there are the young people in Kansas who are directly benefiting from the law.
“If this were to be repealed I would have to drop out of school and my life, essentially, would be ruined," says Kelvin Lopez, a student at Wichita State University.
He was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child by his parents. He’s working his way through school and he hopes to be an attorney and even run for political office. But taking away his in-state tuition could put a stop to that.
“I don’t think that’s fair to me as a taxpayer, someone that’s been raised around everyone else’s children, someone that has identified themselves as an American,” says Lopez.
The Kansas Board of Regents also supports the law. Regent Fred Logan calls the current law a pro-growth policy that will create educated workers. He also points out the students are not eligible for federal and state student loans or grants.
“They have to do this on their own guts. They have to do this on the own motivation. They’re exactly what this state needs,” says Logan.
The House Education Committee is now considering the bill. Efforts to repeal the law have failed in recent years.
