Somerville youth rally to override Romney
By George P. Hassett

    Dozens of Somerville youth rallied at the State House Oct. 25 to support a bill Governor Mitt Romney has said he will veto.
    The In-State Tuition Bill would allow the children of undocumented immigrants who have been in Massachusetts for three to five years to pay the in state tuition rate at state universities. Currently, they are charged three to five times more than other students.

    The youth who brought their issue to the state house are members of the Somerville based AVANCE Youth Program of The Welcome Project, the Peer Leadership Programs at Community Action Agency of Somerville and Centro Presente. They have been working to bring awareness and increase support of the bill.
    Eime, who declined to give her last name because she and her family are undocumented immigrants, said she plans on attending college and believes she should be able to pay the same rate as her classmates.
    “I want to go to a big college and become a lawyer, because I love democracy. Everybody wants an education and if I do well in high school, I think I should have the same opportunities as everybody else to pursue my dreams,” she said.
    The bill was filed by Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, D-Cambridge, in the Senate and Marie P. St. Fleur in the House. Romney vetoed the bill last year and has said he will veto it again.
    Lt. Governor Kerry Healey said she and Romney agree that the bill is a misguided attempt to assist the children of illegal immigrants.   

   "This bill does not fix a problem. It compounds an existing one. In fact, it makes no sense for Massachusetts taxpayers to bear the cost of a college education for an illegal immigrant when he or she cannot legally work in the United States and contribute to our economy. Furthermore, it diverts precious resources from other young immigrants who are here legally and who are struggling to succeed,” said Healey in her May testimony on the bill.
    Barrios said Romney and Healey have misstated a number of aspects of the bill.
    “When a child has done well in high school, they should be allowed to continue their achievements in college. This bill is not a scholarship program, it merely allows young people to continue their education,” he said.
    State Rep. Timothy J. Toomey Jr., D-Cambridge, said the bill will actually bring more money into the state and decrease the burden on taxpayers.
   “If they go to college and get a good job they will be paying considerably more in taxes than if they were denied the chance to develop and forced to flip hamburgers at McDonald’s,” he said.
   Michelle Fuentes, of the Welcome Project, said the bill would bring over $1 million in new revenue to the higher education system through tuition and fees.
   Barrios said he was inspired to file the bill by a woman who interned in his office.
  “This young lady was the valedictorian of her high school class. She had emigrated to America from El Salvador when she was two years old. She had worked hard and done the right thing but she was unable to attend college because her parents, though in the country legally, did not have the right residency status to qualify her for in-state tuition rates. She is just one of hundreds of reasons passing this bill is the right thing to do,” he said.
    Currently, 400 Massachusetts students are prevented from attending college every year because they are undocumented, said Eime.
   Healey said the commonwealth should not condone or encourage breaking the law by granting to illegal immigrants publicly funded opportunities such as in-state tuition.
   Eime maintains the children of illegal immigrants are no different than other young people in America.
   “Everybody in this country comes from immigrants. We want the same chance our classmates get, not anything more. We’re not aliens like they say we are,” she said.
    Toomey said he expects the bill to go to a vote in the next week or two and is hoping to get two/thirds of the vote so it can override a Romney veto. Until then, the Somerville youth who rallied on Oct. 25th, will be holding vigils at the State House from 1p.m. until 8p.m.