IRLI Counsel Kris Kobach Attacks Illegal Alien Tuition and Student Amnesty Abuse at Colorado Hearing

September 22, 2006

(Washington, D.C.) Kris W. Kobach, newly appointed Senior Counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce at a hearing on September 1, 2006 in Aurora, Colorado, examining the implications of a Senate bill that would grant amnesty and in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens attending public universities. The bill, known as the DREAM Act (S.B. 2611) would grant automatic amnesty to any illegal alien who attended school in the U.S. for at least three years and was admitted to a college or university.

Kobach currently serves as lead counsel and co-counsel in two landmark legal challenges to policies in Kansas and California that grant in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens. In both cases, Kobach is representing U.S. citizens who are unlawfully discriminated against by the Kansas and California policies that deny them equal treatment under the law.

The DREAM Act would repeal portions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act passed in 1996 which prohibit any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, unless those same rates are offered to all U.S. citizen students, regardless of their state of residency. In addition, the DREAM Act would create a special amnesty program applicable to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who lack the work experience to qualify for the employment-based amnesty program passed by the Senate.

“Under the DREAM Act, illegal aliens would get preferential treatment over U.S. citizens and foreign students who apply to study legally in the U.S.,” charged Kobach. “As Congress and the Bush Administration claim to be serious about enforcing laws against illegal immigration, the DREAM Act would guarantee green cards and hefty tuition subsidies to the children of people who violate our immigration laws. In other words, the message is, ‘Don’t come. But if you do come, you’re kids will get green cards and a taxpayer-funded college education.’”

Rep. Marilyn Musgrove (R-Colo.) questioned Kobach on the dangers posed by DREAM Act’s Section 624(f), which would create a blanket automatic bar to removal for any person who filed an application for relief. Kobach characterized this loophole as perhaps the most egregious amnesty provision ever passed by either the House or Senate. “You could literally file an application as Mickey Mouse and expect to obtain amnesty benefits and work authorization under this loophole,” Kobach noted afterwards.

Kris Kobach is a widely recognized legal expert in the field of immigration law enforcement. He has served as the Attorney General’s chief advisor on immigration law at the U.S. Department of Justice. Currently Kris serves as Senior Counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and is a Professor of Immigration and Constitutional Law at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law.

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