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State News Release |
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| Wisconsin's Dream Act, AB95, Should Become Law, Say Greens. |
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Wisconsin Green Party Contact: On Thursday, October 23, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill allowing illegal immigrant students to gain legal status and to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities. With not much time left in the legislative session, it is unlikely that the bill will get on the floor of the legislature before it ends. However, Wisconsin has its own Dream Act: AB95. This piece of Wisconsin legislation would restore the ability of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, lost to them through 1996 immigration reforms at the national level. The national reforms directed that states could restore the in-state tuition, but that until they did, affordable education for struggling immigrants would be out of reach. "We urge Wisconsin legislators to move this bill through and pass it," said Jill Bussiere, Co-spokesperson of the WiGP. "Immigrants, both legal and illegal, offer much to our Wisconsin communities. Others in Wisconsin need only provide proof of 12 months of residence in order to receive in-state tuition. Giving this opportunity to all residents, whether legal or illegal immigrants or native-born Wisconsinites will only be of benefit to us all. Education enhances the potential that each person has, and can only make our communities better." "Short-term budget cuts at the state & national levels shouldn't force us to lose sight of the long-term mission of the UW system, which is to educate the people in our state, first and foremost," said Jessica Thill of the LaCrosse Greens. "There is a disturbing trend emerging, in which it's becoming more of a priority for UW schools to recruit students from out-of-state, with all their out-of-state tuition dollars, than it is to address the real and persistent problems of racial and social inequality in the communities where these schools are based." Thill went on to add, "What kind of message does it send to immigrants and their children, if the institution in their new community effectively shuts its doors to them while wooing students from out-of-state to move to town?" The Wisconsin Green Party is an affiliate of the Green Party of the United States, and stands on the four pillars of Ecological Wisdom, Nonviolence, Social & Economic Justice, and Grassroots Democracy.
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