Immigration reform would affect OCCC

By Valerie Jobe, Editor

Junior, as his mother calls him, has lived in the United States since he was 12. He works 50 hours a week in a management position in the fast food industry. Junior pays for college with the $1,000 per year he receives from the Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant program.

Junior is OCCC political science major Guillermo Gonzalez. He is at risk of losing all he has worked for academically if House Bill 1804 passes the Oklahoma Senate because he is living illegally in the United States.

HB 1804 would deny Gonzalez and the more than 250 undocumented college immigrant students access they now have to Oklahoma colleges, the ability to pay in-state tuition, and receive state aid and scholarships, said Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore) and author of HB 1804.

Terrill said, of those 250 undocumented college students, the majority currently attend OCCC.
Although those students are in the country illegally, a 2003 law enables them to legally attend college, according to the State Regents for Higher Education website.

“The 2003 Oklahoma Legislature passed Senate Bill 596, allowing students without lawful immigration status to enroll, pay resident tuition and be eligible for state financial aid under certain conditions,” the website reads.

OCCC President Paul Sechrist said those students have to meet certain requirements to attend OCCC.
“The current law allows students who have lived in Oklahoma for some time and graduated from an Oklahoma high school to go to an Oklahoma college, and not to have to pay the international student tuition and fees,” Sechrist said.

According to Oklahoma state law, for undocumented students to become eligible for in-state tuition and benefits, those students must have attended a state high school for three or more years and graduated from high school, and have signed an affidavit promising to legalize their status as soon as they’re eligible, as reported in the Oct. 10, 2005 issue of the Pioneer.

Although most OCCC students must provide documentation proving residency when enrolling, Gonzalez said he only had to show his high school transcript in order to enroll at OCCC.

Terrill said HB 1804 would change all that.

“This bill will implement substantially tight requirements for entering into a higher education institute in the state of Oklahoma,” he said.

OCCC business major and Argentinian international student Roberto Quiroga said he feels the current standards are unfair.

“It is not fair that [most international students] have to pay a lot more money for [an] education,” he said.

Quiroga said, in order to enroll at OCCC he had to show his ID, student visa and passport.
He also is required to be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours, and prove financial responsibility.

In Quiroga’s case, his sponsor had to prove he had at least $14,000 in a bank account that could be used to support Quiroga while he’s in college.

Terrill’s proposal would call for all international students to be in legal status and meet those same requirements, saying it would benefit the state.

He said undocumented students who receive in-state tuition take potential money from legal residents who are working toward a degree to “better their family and contribute back into society.

“Not one single illegal immigrant who has obtained a degree from a higher education institute has ever turned around and become a legal resident of this state,” Terrill said.

Gonzalez said — at least in his case — that will turn out to be a wrong assumption.
He said he has been in the process of becoming legal since he was 16.

He said an I-30 Immigration and Naturalization Service application is on file for him and will be pushed through as soon as his mo-ther becomes a U.S. citizen in about another year and a half.
Gonzalez’s lawyer, Law-rence Davis, explained.

“If you file a petition and your parent is a legal citizen, the process is sped up because you are an immediate relative of the citizen,” Davis said.

When a parent becomes legal, the petition falls off of the waiting list and the individual becomes immediately eligible for permanent residency at that point, he said.

Shirley Cox, local attorney and director of social action for Catholic Charities, sides with Gonzalez.
“States getting involved in this kind of situation is a band-aid solution,” she said. “States have no place here.”

Cox said the stance of the Catholic Church calls for “comprehensive immigrant reform at the federal level.”

She said, at the very least, the bill should be rewritten to exclude in-state tuition from the language.
She said drugs, gangs and alcohol are the other choices for undocumented immigrants when access to higher education is not available.

Gonzalez believes the bill is just political rhetoric.

“To me, this bill is just a prerequisite for (Terrill) running for office next year,” he said.

Gonzalez said he believes Terrill is pushing this bill for his constituents, in turn, hoping to get more votes should he eventually run for re-election.

Terrill said undocumented immigrants have not met the burden of proof to stay in the state of Oklahoma and said he feels his bill will pass in the Senate.

HB 1804 passed the House of Representatives March 7 with a vote of 88 to 9.

It has now gone to the Senate.

HB 1804, if passed, also would require other aspects of immigration to be state regulated.

Only permanent residents and citizens would be able to acquire a state driver’s license.

The Basic Pilot Program, according to the bill, would be an opt-in program for businesses to electronically verify the status of any immigrant job applicant.

This bill also would require companies to withhold a state income tax of 6 percent for those individuals who can’t provide a verified Social Security number.

Terrill said HB 1804 has caught national attention. He said he hopes this will influence national immigration reform policies.

Editor Valerie Jobe can be reached at editor@occc.edu.