Push to alter tuition law for illegal immigrants

Rep. Fred Jarrett wants to close a loophole through which foreign students here on visas are able to take advantage of a provision in an 18-month-old law meant to provide in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants.

But the Mercer Island Republican is concerned that his attempt to fix it through a bill he introduced may inadvertently reopen a contentious and often partisan debate over whether illegal immigrants are entitled to the benefit in the first place.

"For me, that's been settled," Jarrett said.

"We wanted to provide an opportunity for kids who literally had grown up as our neighbors, played soccer with our kids, to have an opportunity at the end of high school to look forward to college," he said.

The law, which took effect July 1, 2003, was intended to help children who were living in this country illegally gain access to college by offering them the lower in-state tuition rates.

Many of those students, if they went to college, faced higher out-of-state or foreign-student rates that can be several times the rate for in-state students. At the University of Washington, for example, the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition can be as much as $11,000 a year.

To qualify under the law, the students must have lived in Washington at least three years before enrolling in college here and must have received a high-school diploma or its equivalent in this state.

Some higher-education administrators, including those at the UW, had warned early on that the measure was too broadly written, and could inadvertently extend benefits to international students here on any number of nonimmigrant visas.

Among them would be the children of technology workers on employment-based visas; the children of international researchers; or students who came to this country for other reasons, attended high school here and enrolled at state institutions under an international student visa.

Their warnings were borne out by enrollment figures.

At four-year institutions this past fall, those students outnumbered illegal-immigrant students enrolled in the tuition-assistance program. At the UW, three-quarters of the program's 44 enrollees this fall were visa holders.

"The way the legislation was written, it left the door open for some students to pay resident tuition even though they may have come here as international students," said Tim Washburn, assistant vice president for enrollment services at the UW, which has had the bulk of the visa enrollees since the program began.

Jarrett's proposed amendment to the law — the details of which are still being worked out — would deny eligibility to those students whose visas specifically prevent them from seeking permanent residence in the United States or prevent them from abandoning their foreign residence.

That may include students who are in the United States on international student visas available for anything from grade-school to graduate-school study, exchange-student visas, or visas for vocational studies.

A hearing on Jarrett's bill is scheduled for Friday.

Cristian Nitulescu hopes that his teenage daughter, Ioana, now a sophomore at Sammamish High School, will still qualify for in-state tuition rates when it comes time for her to go to college.

It's unclear whether she would qualify under the changes being proposed.

Nitulescu said it shouldn't matter that members of his Romanian family are nonimmigrants here on employment-based visas tied to his job at Microsoft.

"We are establishing ourselves here," said Nitulescu, adding he and his family would like to become permanent residents.

"Besides federal taxes, I pay property taxes — some of which I'm sure go to support colleges and universities. I pay Medicare and Social Security I may never be able to benefit from if I don't become a permanent resident."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com