The House Higher Education committee, in a voice vote with no roll call, approved the bill proposed by Rep. Tom Rice, a Norcross Republican. The bill now moves to the House Rules committee, which will decide when and if it gets a full House vote.
Rice said the legislation is necessary to keep an illegal immigrant from taking the place of any citizen or legal resident.
``That's the real issue, should somebody really be here to take the spot of somebody who is here legally in the university system?'' Rice said.
University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll Davis testified that the system isn't overrun by illegal immigrants and such students aren't taking the place of citizens and legal residents. He also said that illegal immigrant students more than pay for the cost of their education because they are required to pay out-of-state tuition.
The Regents examined the issue last summer in the wake of concerns voiced over a high-profile case involving an illegal immigrant and Kennesaw State University student threatened with deportation after an arrest in March. Ultimately, federal immigration authorities delayed action on her case for a year to allow her to finish her education.
The Regents found that, out of about 311,000 students enrolled in the systems 35 colleges and universities in the fall, 501 were ``undocumented students.'' That's less than two-tenths of a percent. Davis stressed that ``undocumented'' does not necessarily mean illegal, it could also mean someone who doesn't have their proper papers in order.
Davis said a new rule adopted in October that prohibits University System of Georgia schools that have rejected any academically qualified applicants in the two most recent academic years from accepting illegal immigrant applicants means that illegal immigrants aren't taking spots from citizens and legal residents.
Rice said the bill is merely adding postsecondary education to a list of public benefits that illegal immigrants are not entitled to receive.
D.A. King, founder of the Dustin Inman Society, which advocates tougher immigration enforcement measures, said that federal law already classifies postsecondary education as a public benefit that illegal immigrants are ineligible for.
Davis, the university system chancellor, said federal officials have told him that's not the case and that he is using that and the policy of 48 other states as a guideline. South Carolina is the only state that currently bars illegal immigrants from attending state colleges and universities.
Tonna Harris-Bosselmann, who teaches English as a second language at Gainesville State College, was one of several speakers who urged the committee not to pass the bill.
``When you academically disenfranchise a segment of the population, who wins? Nobody does,'' she said.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/2/236221