Latinos Make Plea To State Committee

More than 198 Latinos want the State Legislative Finance Committee to include license certificates in state budget

By H. Nelson Goodson

El Conquistador Newspaper

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March 25, 2009

Milwaukee- On Wednesday, an estimated 198 Latinos and non-Latinos went in front of the State Legislative Joint Finance Committee at the Wisconsin State Fair public hearing to request a provision be added for license certificates in the state budget. Father Eleazar Perez Rodriguez told the committee that undocumented immigrants should be afforded the right to carry a Wisconsin Driver’s License, but in this case a license certificate not deemed for federal identification purposes could be provided by the state, according to the Real ID Act. The REAL ID Act of 2005 is a U.S. federal law that imposes certain security, authentication, and issuance procedures standards for the state driver's licenses and state ID cards, for them to be accepted by the federal government for "official purposes", as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The state finance committee has yet to decide, if they will include a provision for license certificates.

Although, Governor Jim Doyle is recommending in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants for the 2009-’11 executive budget proposal. Doyle’s provision allows undocumented immigrants living in the state and attending a high school for three years to be charged tuition as a state resident instead as an out of state resident. Immigrants would have to prove they have graduated from a Wisconsin high school and expected to apply for U.S. citizenship when they become eligible to do so.

An article printed in the The Daily Cardinal says, “Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities chair Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, said the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Reconciliation Act of 1996 may conflict with Doyle’s proposal because it would require the state to grant all U.S. citizens in-state tuition as well.

“Then we couldn’t charge out-of-state tuition, and out of state tuition is very important to the university because it [not only] pays for that student’s education, but also it subsidizes Wisconsin citizens’ education,” Hixson said.

Currently, 10 other states have laws permitting undocumented citizens who meet certain requirements to pay in-state tuition at public universities.

According to documents from the National Immigration Law Center, the requirements undocumented residents must meet to pay in-state tuition—such as graduating from Wisconsin high schools—prevent such laws from contradicting the federal law.

The UW Board of Regents has previously taken a position in favor of the proposal and in 2007, former regent Jesus Salas resigned when the state budget passed without this provision,” according to a report by Megan Orear /The Daily Cardinal from the University of Wisconsin-Madison date March 23, 2009.

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