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Citizens For Immigration Reform regular news digests that are sent to those on the email list.

02-01-2010

http://www.lonestarreport.org/Home/tabid/38/EntryId/426/Setting-the-record-straight-on-in-state-tuition-for-illegals.aspx

Setting the record straight on in-state tuition for illegals.

Andy Hogue on our staff was present in Dallas for The Belo Debate between the Republican candidates for governor, and I'll let him comment later on the merits of the debate. But there are some factual issues that deserve clarification on the topic of in-state tuition for illegal immigration.

At tonight's debate, KHOU's Len Cannon asked Gov. Rick Perry an excellent question. Noting that U.S. Citizens from other states cannot get in-state tuition at Texas universities, Cannon asked whether it is fair that Texas grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. (A law signed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2001 granted illegal immigrant graduates of Texas high schools in-state tuition at state universities and colleges.)

First, many categories of LEGAL immigrants are ineligible for in-state tuition, including student visas. That's right -- foreign students who obey the law pay more than illegal immigrants whose parents broke the law.

The Texas Administrative Code has a specific section on the types of visas that one can use to establish domicile in Texas for tuition purposes. The citation is 19 TAC, Rule 21.24. The regulations include a chart which states exactly which types of visas are eligible for in-state tuition and which ones are not.

Second, Gov. Rick Perry's claim that the Texas Education Agency follows up on whether illegal immigrant recipients of in-state tuition actually file for permanent residency is just plain false. The Texas Education Agency has no authority over higher education or determination of residency status for tuition purposes. The Higher Education Coordinating Board is the agency that makes rules on Texas residency for tuition purposes.

The law does not require illegal immigrants who get in-state tuition to apply for legal status. It requires illegal immigrants to sign an affidavit claiming they will apply when they become eligible. For example an illegal immigrant who will never become eligible for permanent residency can honestly sign the affidavit, since no obligation attaches until a person becomes eligible to apply for legal status.

The law in this area is Texas Education Code, Section 54.053(3)(B):

if the person is not a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, an affidavit stating that the person will apply to become a permanent resident of the United States as soon as the person becomes eligible to apply.

No regulation, law, or policy requires any university or the coordinating board to follow up on whether the application for legal status mentioned in the Education Code is ever filed.

In short, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants discriminates not only against citizens from other states -- as stated in the debate. It also discriminates against certain types of legal immigrants.

POLITICS-BLOG-Congress-takes-aim-at-blocking-illegal-immigrants-from-accessing-in-state-college-tuition

Politics Blog: Congress takes aim at blocking illegal immigrants from accessing in-state college tuition

A new development has taken place in the ongoing battle to stop illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-subsidized college tuition.

This week a bill was introduced by U.S. Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and U.S.Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) called the Fairness for American Students Act that would close a loophole in current law that several states have used to provide lower-cost college tuition to illegal immigrants compared to tuition rates U.S. citizens from neighboring states have to pay. Kansas and Nebraska are two of the states that currently offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

The organizations NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) are both supporting the legislation and are pledging to help it move through Congress. The bill is co-sponsored by Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) and Rodney Alexander (R-La.).

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02-19-2010

http://politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/feb/14/rick-perry/perry-says-tea-checks-whether-undocumented-student/

Texas Truth-O-Meter: Perry says the TEA checks whether undocumented students are applying for permanent residency.

--------

Clearly, Perry believes the TEA follows up on public college students who enroll as illegal immigrants. But is it true?

Not according to Suzanne Marchman, TEA spokeswoman, who said the agency oversees primary and secondary public education.

"The law (at issue) applies to colleges and universities," she said of House Bill 1403, the measure Perry signed in June 2001 permitting undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at higher education institutions. "Our agency doesn't oversee any of that."

Catherine Frazier, deputy press secretary at the Perry campaign, immediately conceded the governor's misstatement. Frazier said: "Each university is supposed to follow up on whether undocumented immigrants are pursuing citizenship and report to the (Texas) Higher Education Coordinating Board."

That so? Not exactly, at least not at the University of Texas at Austin: "There's no requirement in the law that we follow up on that," said Deana Williams, UT's assistant director of admissions.

Williams, a UT admissions official since before the 2001 law took effect, said the coordinating board, which oversees colleges and universities statewide, has told the schools to collect undocumented students' affidavits and check their transcripts to confirm that they've lived in Texas for at least the three years required to be eligible for in-state tuition. Williams said UT keeps the affidavits on record indefinitely but it's "never required to report or check" whether those students are actively pursuing permanent residency .

Andy Kesling, the coordinating board's director of communications, said the board doesn't follow up with benefiting students at all. Indeed, there's nothing in the statute requiring it to.

E-Verify: http://www.numbersusa.com/content/node/5250

Rep. Kenny Marchant Proposes Bill to use E-Verify for Mortgage Applications

Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) has offered the Mortgage E-Verify Act that would require a mortgagor to be verified through E-Verify when applying for a modification of a home loan owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

* * *

Governor Perry and Debra Medina do not like E-Verify. Medina feels I-9's are sufficient, Senator Hutchison is for E-Verify.

After being found guilty of I-9 violations, this company now uses E-Verify.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1002/100212cincinnati.htm

Faulty I-9s lead to $536,046 fine
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that Koch Foods of Cincinnati LLC paid a $536,046 fine for administrative violations of U.S. immigration laws. The fine relates to I-9 violations at Koch's Fairfield, Ohio, facility." ICE, Feb. 10, 2010.

CINCINNATI - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that Koch Foods of Cincinnati LLC paid a $536,046 fine for administrative violations of U.S. immigration laws.

The ICE Office of Investigations in Cincinnati conducted a worksite investigation of Koch Foods after receiving information from a concerned citizen alleging that the company was employing more than 100 illegal aliens at their poultry processing facility in the Cincinnati area. In August 2007, ICE subsequently executed a search warrant at Koch's Fairfield, Ohio, processing facility and arrested 161 illegal aliens and seized relevant documents. ICE also executed a search warrant at Koch's corporate offices in Chicago seizing relevant documents.

Employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This form requires employers to review and record the individual's identity document(s) and determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and related to the individual. The fine relates to I-9 violations at Koch's Fairfield, Ohio, facility. The company has cooperated with ICE in the investigation employing the use of E-Verify and ensuring that its policies and procedures are in compliance with legal requirements.

John Fay, Feb. 13, 2010.

Welfare

http://www.numbersusa.com/petition?ID=61&jid=358392&lid&rid=698&tid=1618198

Sign NumbersUSA petition to reduce welfare growth:

Half of all immigrant households with children are on welfare. HALF! These are supposed to be people doing "jobs Americans won't do." Sounds more like they're collecting government benefits U.S. citizens can't get!

* * *

The drain on our schools:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/84263182.html

San Antonio Express-News - February 14, 2010

LITTLE TALK OF SCHOOL FUNDING IN GOV RACE

Four in 10 Texas school districts are using “rainy day” reserve funds to balance their current budgets. More than half the districts are expected to do so next year. Growing resource inequity among the districts could lead to another school finance lawsuit against the state. Public school enrollment grows by some 80,000 students each year, and in the past decade, 97 percent of that growth came from low-income families. Experts largely agree these are the most pressing problems in public education. But the candidates running for Texas governor haven't addressed them unless asked by reporters.

02-23-2010

IRCOT immigration question (#3) to the Gubernatorial candidates is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7BC6xwr7Nw

The folks at the helm of CommonSense Texans do great work, make sure you (and all your contacts) are signed up on their site as it will be a tremendous networking tool for us.

Subject: Update on Grassroots Gubernatorial Debate

All:

Thanks to emails from your teams and other grassroots conservatives around the state encouraging the campaigns to meet with us, we have completed our video interviews of each of Kay Bailey Hutchison, Debra Medina and Rick Perry. Each candidate was asked ten questions prepared by our statewide tea partiers and 9-12ers. Here are the results of the first five questions. We'll have the other five uploaded later tonight or tomorrow morning. (Ken, would you post to www.commonsensetexans.net?)

We hope that these videos will be valuable to you and your groups. Please encourage your friends to hit these sites. The more hits, the more likely we will be able to get candidates to speak directly with the people in the future. (FYI, we have reserved a new website where we hope that other tea parties across the country can post their candidate debates as this election year progresses. More to come on this later.)

We have also interviewed Democrat Bill White and are looking to interview Farouk Shami. We will have those interviews up later this week.

These interviews were completed directly due to the efforts of your groups. The emails that flooded in from Texans late in January made the difference. So much so that even the lead Democratic candidate agreed to participate.

Question 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evL6aNjkNno

Question 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh085R9aTCs

Question 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7BC6xwr7Nw

Question 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KPMTeTSFjI

Question 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQaM5M7Wk1g

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Story on IRCOT
lawsuit: Law granting
in-state tuition to
illegal immigrants
goes to court
by Andy Hogue

See Court Case

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