Undocumented students at Utah colleges would be required to sign a promise not to work while attending school under provisions of a bill passed by a House committee Wednesday.
HB208's sponsor Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy said he was inspired to write the bill after hearing news stories last summer about students who were juggling their responsibilities as full-time students while working full time. Greenwood said the problem was, the students were undocumented residents.
"It occurred to me, how are these students working?" Greenwood said. "Working under the table … using a fake Social Security card … these are felonies."
Greenwood's bill revisits the oft-debated waiver that Utah offers to undocumented students at its colleges and universities, allowing them to attend at in-state tuition rates. Last year, about 280 students were utilizing the program, according the Utah System of Higher Education.
Under Greenwood's bill, these students would be required to sign an affidavit promising not to work while attending school. Breaking the agreement would result, Greenwood said, in the student losing the tuition waiver, in addition to the possibility of being charged with felony-level crimes for illegal employment.
The bill was heard before the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, which met in a packed hearing room Wednesday morning. While almost two dozen people raised their hands when asked who wanted to testify, the committee only allowed four people to testify in what could be the only public hearing for the bill — and none of those were undocumented students.
One of the two opponents for the bill, the president of the Associate Students at the University of Utah Patrick Reimherr, told the committee it is the norm for college students to work, regardless of how much tuition assistance they get and the measure adds additional burdens to students already faced with unique challenges.
"What this bill does is create a climate of fear for students who are making responsible decisions," Reimherr. "Getting into college is difficult enough without criminalizing their means of support."
Ronald Mortenson, testifying before the committee on behalf of the Citizen's Coalition on Illegal Immigration, said that the state failed these students when implementing the tuition-waiver rules and may have left them with no choice but to work illegally.
"Those who support the current program and who fail to provide students who need financial assistance with a legal means to pay for their education are doing the beneficiaries of this program, as well as the entire community, a terrible disservice."
Greenwood said he had talked with multiple nonprofit agencies that had pledged to help students who are unable to work while in school, but could not detail the amount of aid that might be available or the means to acquire it.
Committee member and House Minority Leader Rep. David Litvack, D-West Valley, said the bill would, ultimately, undermine the intent of the tuition waiver.
"I do fear the unintentional consequences of HB208 will be to shift the policy the state made in 2001 that provided the access to education for undocumented students … to deny the opportunity of higher education opportunities," Litvack said.
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