Vol. 71/No. 22      June 4, 2007

Two local radio station DJ’s, Ulises “El Bocho” Ugalde and Jorge Lopez “El Vampiro,” organized a human chain May 1 surrounding La Raza radio station here. Hundreds reportedly took part, carrying signs opposing state Senate bills aimed at the rights of immigrant workers.

Students, professors and others have lambasted plans by the Board of Regents of the Georgia state university system to require undocumented college students to pay out-of-state tuition rates beginning July 1.

The hike in tuition bills can be huge. At Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, for example, in-state students pay $1,946 per semester vs. $7,785 for out-of-state students.

A series of four hearings were held May 8-14 by the regents in Dalton, Clarkston, Tifton and Gainesville. The majority of speakers defended the right of undocumented students to pay the same as other in-state students.

“Affordable education is a human right,” said Xavier Kim at the May 9 hearing in Clarkston. Kim is a member of Students for Peace from the University of Georgia Athens. “I am an immigrant, I am a Korean, I am an American, I am a human being, and no human being is illegal,” he said.

D.A. King, an anti-immigrant rightist, said at the hearing in Dalton, that space in state colleges and universities, and in the waiver program, should be used by legal residents. “All of us wish that we could provide a college education at a reduced rate for everybody on the planet,” he said. “We cannot.”

Georgia state colleges and universities already require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition. But starting July 1, they will no longer be eligible for a limited number of achievement-based waivers that offered in-state rates to some undocumented students who graduated from Georgia high schools.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that state officials estimate roughly 100 students may be receiving the waivers statewide.

Shelly Rose, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League, South East Region, spoke at the Clarkson hearing, urging in-state tuition rates for all graduates of Georgia high schools regardless of documentation.

University officials say the policy shift is a result of the agency’s interpretation of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which was signed it into law last year.

The state senate has already passed two other laws that would affect many undocumented immigrants. Both await the governor’s signature.

Bill 15 would make driving without a license a felony on the fourth offense within a five-year period.

Bill 38 would require Georgians to obtain a valid driver’s license before they can get their car registered. To get a driver’s license, residents of Georgia must already verify they are in the country legally.

Georgia’s undocumented immigrant population—estimated at nearly half a million—is considered one of the country’s fastest-growing, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
 
 
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‘ICE get out!’ protesters in Minneapolis tell ‘la migra’  
 
 
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