We support HB 59 in Georgia

HB 59 POINTS

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 36 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to verification of lawful presence within the United States, so as to clarify that postsecondary education is a state and local public benefit; to reserve postsecondary education benefits to citizens and lawfully present and eligible aliens; to require verification of the eligibility for such applicants for such benefits through the federal SAVE program; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. HERE
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HB 59 points

* HB 59, proposed by Gwinnett state Rep. Tom Rice is essentially a bill that says we must obey the law passed in 2006 (OCGA 50-36-1) and that all public universities and tech schools in Georgia must ask for proof of eligibility from student applicants for admission and verify that aliens who apply are indeed eligible, using immigration status.

* Governor Nathan Deal supports the concept and promised action as candidate:
“Question: “If elected, will you do whatever necessary to prohibit illegal aliens from attending any school in Georgia’s university system and our technical college system? This is a YES or NO question.

Barnes: “I am not in favor of illegal immigrants attending Georgia’s public colleges and universities.”

Deal: “Yes.”

(in the Marietta Daily Journal August, 2010
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – D A King Illegal Immigration)

*The Regents hope to convince us that Georgia has an unlimited and infinite number of resources and public funded college classroom seats. We don’t.

* The radical hard left that opposes HB 87 (of course they do) wails that we should not punish illegal alien children for what their illegal alien parents have done. Maybe, but with Georgia being a destination and home for hundreds of thousands of real, legal immigrants from all over the world and a limited number of public college classroom seats, one needs to ask why we would punish their lawfully present children for what their parents did not do – intentionally and brazenly violate American immigration and employment laws while taking advantage of the federal mandate that we educate their children K-12.

* Why would we dedicate any of our limited taxpayer financed state post secondary education resources to educate a student who is in the country illegally when that individual is not eligible to work anywhere in the country upon graduation?

* If you have asked yourself why we would turn away a member of the U.S. military – or a veteran – because we admitted an illegal alien…well, me too.

* The author of the 2006 state immigration law, Senator Chip Rogers, testified to “legislative intent” in a February 2011 House Higher Education Committee hearing on HB 59. He made it clear that the law’s intent was to preserve Georgia’s university classroom seats for students who are either U.S. citizens or lawfully present aliens.

Senator Don Balfour, chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules also took the time to testify at the 2010 House committee in favor of the bill and carefully explained that his own son had been denied admission from a local university because it had no available seats for his selected classes. His son was a member of the United States military.

• At least two Democrats in the House have said they want to not only expand enrollment of illegals in Georgia’s post secondary system, but also reward them with instate tuition… MDJ last week HERE http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/17109805/article-Two-Cobb-Democrats-want-in-state-tuition-for-illegal-immigrants?instance=secondary_story_left_column

Federal law (8USC1621 – which is part of OCGA 50-36-1) on illegals and post secondary education:

§ 1621. Aliens who are not qualified aliens or nonimmigrants ineligible for State and local public benefits

c) “State or local public benefit” defined
(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), for purposes of this subchapter the term “State or local public benefit” means—
(A) any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial license provided by an agency of a State or local government or by appropriated funds of a State or local government; and
(B) any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of a State or local government or by appropriated funds of a State or local government.

HERE