By: Ryan Poppe, Texas Public Radio
Some Republican lawmakers say the Texas Dream Act is another way for the state to be involved in the act of picking winners and losers and they want the law to change or go away. Texas Public Radio’s Ryan Poppe reports those against a repeal rallied at the Capitol.
“Up, Up with Education, Down, Down with Deportations”
Efforts to repeal the Texas Dream Act, organized by the group Keep HB 1403, drew dozens of proponents and students affected by the law to a rally at the State Capitol.
The law passed in 2001 allows immigrant children of undocumented parents to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities, if they fulfill certain other requirements, which in some cases can be a difference of $6,000 a semester. But Bedford Republican Rep. Jonathan Stickland says the law doesn’t provide a level playing field for children of Texas residents.
STICKLAND: “Why does someone who lives four miles outside the Oklahoma border have less of an opportunity than someone who comes here illegally from the southern border? It’s trying to pick winners and loser and what we should be doing is putting Texas kids first.”
And Stickland’s not the only Republican with plans for the Texas Dream Act. Freshman Rep. Mark Keough from the Woodlands says he isn’t in favor of repealing the law, but would like to see it changed.
KEOUGH: “They have to be a permanent resident and they have to be here legally, and when I say legally, we are educating people, educated people who are illegal. And so it is with special incentives for people living here illegally. And all I want people to do is say, ‘Hey, you don’t have any right to go there and sign up.”
Currently, Dream Act students are required to have completed high school from Texas, show they have resided in the state for the last three years and sign an affidavit that promises they will sign up for a legal residency card when they are old enough.
Keough’s bill drops the residency requirement down to one year for students applying for the Texas Dream Act.
An average of 16,000 students are currently enrolled through the program. Rp tpr news]
Ryan E. Poppe | Reporter-State Capitol Bureau | KSTX 89.1 FM
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