HOUSE BILL 474

Summary Under House Bill (HB) 474, an illegal alien is eligible for in-state tuition rates, if he or she: (1) has graduated from a NH High School or received a NH GED; (2) has attended a NH High School for 3 years prior to graduation or was domiciled in NH 3 years prior to receiving a NH GED; (3) provides a copy of a filed application to legalize immigration status or files an affidavit stating that he or she will file an application to legalize immigration status when eligible to do so; and (4) meets all other general requirements for in-state tuition rates. Analysis HB 474 is fiscally irresponsible. As you must be acutely aware, New Hampshires higher education system has been suffering a budget crisis due to the weakened economy. State fiscal support for higher education has decreased by 49.9 percent between FY 2008 and FY 2013, despite significant increases in enrollment.1 During this period, New Hampshire public schools and universities were forced to increase tuition on average by more than 36.7%,2 eliminate hundreds of staff positions,3 freeze hiring and staff salaries,4 and make countless other subtractions. As a result of these budget cuts and annual tuition hikes, New Hampshires college graduates possess the most education-related debt in the entire United States, carrying an average of $31,048 of debt.5 New Hampshire also ranks second in the nation of proportion of students in debt, with 74% of students relying on loans to fund their educations.6 The University of New Hampshire, the largest public university in the State of New Hampshire, currently charges its full-time in-state students $12,720 less per year than its out-ofstate full-time students.7 If the estimated 15,000 illegal aliens who live in New Hampshire are
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Figure 1: Recent Deep State Higher Education Cuts May Harm Students and the Economy for Years to Come (2013), available at http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3927. 2 Id. at Figure 3. 3 Id. 4 President Mark Huddleston, University of New Hampshire, Proposed State Appropriation Cuts and UNH Budget Preparations, available at http://www.unh.edu/president/proposed-state-appropriation-cuts-and-unh-budgetpreparations. 5 Ted Siefer, NH Students Rise to the Top of the Debt List, NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER, November 7, 2011, available at http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111108/NEWS04/711089979. 6 Id. 7 Business Services, University of New Hampshire, 2013/2014 Tuition and Fees - Undergraduate (2013), available at http://www.unh.edu/business-services/tuitug.html.
1

extended in-state tuition rates through HB 474, New Hampshires higher education system stands to lose millions of dollars a year.8 This would only serve to further damage and strain delicate budgets, reduce the quality of public education in New Hampshire, and impose additional burdens on New Hampshire taxpayers who heavily subsidize post-secondary public education and parents and students through tuition hikes to make up the loss. HB 474 is thus unfair to New Hampshires schools, parents, students, and taxpayers. They should not be made to bear such a burden, especially considering illegal aliens have flagrantly broken our immigration laws and have no legal right to reside in the United States, much less New Hampshire. HB 474 is also bad public policy. It serves as a perverse incentive for illegal aliens to move to New Hampshire. Illegal immigration is a burden to every state as it results in higher costs of living, reduced job availability,9 lower wages,10 higher crime rates,11 fiscal hardship on
FAIR, Immigration in New Hampshire (2010), available at http://www.fairus.org/DocServer/statecost/new_hampshire_state_cost_illegal_immigration.pdf (citing estimated illegal alien population in New Hampshire). 9 There is no such thing as an illegal alien job. Illegal aliens and natives compete for the same jobs, and native workers are increasingly disadvantaged because employers have access to a steady supply of low-wage foreign workers. What is worse, illegal immigration has a disproportional impact on poor Americans. Because a large proportion of illegal aliens are low-skilled workers, they are more likely to compete with and undercut the wages of low-skill native workers. See Jeffrey S Passel and DVera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, Pew Research Center, Apr. 2009, at 11-12, available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/107.pdf. 10 In Georgia, where the illegal alien share of the labor force went from about 4 percent to 7 percent from 2000 to 2007, a study by the Federal Reserve found that the illegal labor caused a 2.5 percent wage drop overall and an 11 percent drop in construction wages over that time period. See Julie L. Hotchkiss and Myriam Quispe-Agnoli, The Labor Market Experience and Impact of Undocumented Workers, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Feb. 2008, at 36, 39, available at http://www.frbatlanta.org/filelegacydocs/wp0807c.pdf. Harvard Universitys George Borjas concluded that immigration reduced wages for the poorest 10 percent of Americans by about 7.4 percent between 1980 and 2000 with even larger effects for workers with less than 20 years of experience. George J. Borjas, Increasing the Supply of Labor through Immigration: Measuring the Impact on Native Workers , Backgrounder, Center for Immigration Studies, May 2004, at 1, available at http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/back504.pdf. 11 The Federal Bureau of Prisons reported that, although illegal aliens only make up an estimated 3.7 percent of the United States population, non-citizens account for 26 percent of the federal jail population. See United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, State of the Bureau, at 3 (2010), available at http://www.bop.gov/news/PDFs/sob10.pdf. DHS estimates that non-citizens nationally comprise 20 percent of inmates in prisons and jails. See Center for Immigration Studies, Immigration and Crime: Assessing a Conflicted Issue, at 1 (Nov. 2009), available at http://www.cis.org/articles/2009/crime.pdf. Even so, every crime illegal aliens commit in the United States was potentially preventable if the illegal alien had been identified, apprehended, and removed before they victimized anyone. Conversely, states and cities that make life impracticable for illegal aliens see a dramatic decrease in illegal immigration and crime. For example, DHS estimated that Arizonas illegal alien population grew from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 by 2008, one of the fastest rates nationally. Office of Immigration Statistics, DHS, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2008 , available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2008.pdf. After Arizonas SB 1070 strict enforcement and cooperation law passed, however, Arizonas illegal alien population dropped by 18 percent from 2008 to 2009. Office of Immigration Statistics, DHS, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2009, available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2009.pdf. Arizona also experienced a significant decrease in violent crime. After Prince William County, Virginia instituted a policy of cooperation with DHS, its illegal alien population decreased significantly in just two years, resulting in a reduction in violent crime
8

hospitals and substandard quality of care for residents,12 burdens on public services, increasing their costs and diminishing their availability,13 less security and safety in the community,14 and a reduction on the overall quality of life. As of 2010, the cost of illegal immigration to the taxpayers of the state of New Hampshire is estimated to be $129 million a year.15 HB 474 will only serve to burden the state more. HB 474 is also unfair to United States citizen and legal resident students from other states. These students who lawfully reside in the United States are required to pay non-resident tuition rates. Yet HB 474 would authorize in-state tuition rates to persons who have no lawful right to reside in the United States and New Hampshire. New Hampshire should implement policies that put the interests of United States citizens and legal residents first, rather than reward foreign nationals who are unlawfully residing in the United States. Furthermore, federal law states notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizens or national is such a resident.16 In offering aliens not lawfully present in the United States in-state tuition rates through HB 474 but denying the same to citizens or nationals of the United States from other states, New Hampshire would be acting in violation of federal law. HB 474 is also unfair to foreign students lawfully present in the United States on student visas. Students with visas are required to pay non-resident tuition rates. What kind of message does it send to these students who play by the rules that they must pay higher tuition rates than their compatriots who cheat the system? Sadly, some students might be tempted to violate the terms of their student visa to receive the tuition break. New Hampshire should implement policies that reward those who abide by our laws, not those who break them.
and hit-and-run accidents. Center for Survey Research, University of Virginia, Evaluation Study of Prince William Countys Illegal Immigration Enforcement Policy FINAL REPORT 2010 , available at http://www.pwcgov.org/government/bocs/Documents/13188.pdf. 12 The national annual state and local costs related to health care for illegal aliens is $5.8 billion. See FAIR, The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (2010), available at http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-fiscal-burden-of-illegal-immigration-on-u-s-taxpayers. 13 Illegal immigration costs United States taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. See FAIR, The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (2010), available at http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-fiscal-burden-of-illegal-immigration-on-u-s-taxpayers. The bulk of the costs some $84 billion are absorbed by state and local governments. Id. 14 Illegal immigration is a threat to national security. Reportedly, over half of the 48 individuals convicted or tied to recent terrorist plots in the United States either were themselves illegal aliens or relied upon illegal aliens to get fake IDs. 9/11 Commission Staff, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Aug. 21, 2004), available at http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/911_TerrTrav_Monograph.pdf. Immigration violators participated in the first attack on the World Trade Center, the Los Angeles Millennium bombing plot, the New York subway bombing conspiracy, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Id. 15 FAIR, Immigration in New Hampshire (2010), available at http://www.fairus.org/DocServer/statecost/new_hampshire_state_cost_illegal_immigration.pdf. 16 8 U.S.C. 1623.

HB 474 is also unfair to legal immigrant students who patiently waited for months and years and paid thousands of dollars in travel, legal and medical fees to abide by our entry, health and processing laws and regulations to immigrate to the United States. Prospective immigrants have little incentive to pursue the legal paths to immigration when they can side step the process and gain the same benefits. HB 474 is also unfair to American workers who will compete with illegal alien graduates for jobs. HB 474 is also illogical considering federal law prohibits the employment of illegal aliens.17 It makes no sense to expend tax dollars on the higher education of students who cannot legally work in the United States.18 Lastly, HB 474 frustrates the purposes and objectives of federal immigration law by granting benefits to persons whom federal law mandates cannot reside in the United States and are subject to immediate removal. Some argue that the main beneficiaries of HB 474 are innocent young people who were brought to this country as children by their parents. Yes, many of the beneficiaries have been dealt a bad hand (by their parents). As difficult (even unfair) as it may be, upon reaching adulthood they have the responsibility to obey the law. When, for example, Jose Antonio Vargas proclaimed on the pages of The New York Times Magazine, that he knowingly engaged in illegal activities in order to remain and work in the United States illegally, he became culpable in his own right. While he, and others like him, may be more sympathetic than the people who committed the predicate offense, their situation does not excuse their own illegal acts.19 HB 474 only sends the message that if you violate United States immigration law, American society is responsible for fixing the mess you created for your children. If the children of those who have flagrantly violated our immigration law receive in-state tuition rates, the parents will have attained the objective of their illegal acts. Without question, HB 474 undermines the rule of law and rewards illegal behavior.

8 U.S.C. 1324a. Students granted deferred action under the Obama Administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are eligible for a work permit, but deferred action under the DACA program is merely a temporary reprieve from removal proceedings (up to a two-year period) that can be rescinded at any time without notice. See Memorandum from Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, to David Aguilar, Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, USCIS, and John Morton, Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Re: Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children, at 2 (June 15, 2012), available at http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s1-exercising-prosecutorial-discretion-individuals-who-came-to-us-aschildren.pdf. 19 Even the average illegal alien, who some claim is otherwise law-abiding despite violating our duly established immigration law, violates numerous laws, including, but not limited to, laws prohibiting identity theft, forgery, and driving without a license or insurance, often creating real victims.
18

17