April 9, 2011

Md. House votes to give tuition breaks to undocumented immigrants

After hours of heated and sometimes tearful debate, Maryland’s House of Delegates narrowly passed a bill on Friday to make illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition.

The bill, which has been revised several times to gain support of wavering Democrats, would allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from Maryland high schools to pay in-state tuition at community colleges if they can prove their parents are state taxpayers. Students who receive an associate’s degree could transfer to a four-year state college and pay the lower rate.

With only three days remaining before the General Assembly adjourns, the measure now returns to the Senate, which last month passed a different version of the legislation.

But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) this week said that if the House passed the bill, he expected that the two chambers would be able to work out their differences. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has said he will sign the bill. SOURCE: Washington Post

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