Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Under Texas law, in-state college tuition rates aren't only for longtime legal residents.

Under Texas law, in-state college tuition rates aren't only for longtime legal residents.

They're available to, among others:

Students who bunked with Texas relatives during at least three high school years while their parents lived in another state. Students who've won competitive scholarships of $1,000 or more, regardless of how long they've lived in Texas. Students from other countries pursuing doctorate degrees through biomedical research training programs. Students attending the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College while training for the Olympics.

But none of those in-state tuition qualifiers have gotten the attention that's focused on students who were brought here illegally as children and want to seek the American dream of a college education.

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, wants to dismantle a state law that grants in-state rates to young people who've graduated from a state high school or gotten a diploma equivalent after living in Texas at least three years. The reason: He wants illegal immigrants out of Texas, not paying more affordable tuition.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board estimates that 10,455 students paid in-state tuition in fall 2008 through this provision in the Education Code, 78 percent of them undocumented. However, the undocumented students amounted to only

0.7 percent of the 1.14 million enrolled in Texas colleges and universities.

At lawmakers' request, Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled on the in-state tuition law's constitutionality last week., but he left a key question open. Abbott said the law doesn't violate Equal Protection guarantees because any U.S. citizen could qualify for

in-state tuition by meeting the requirements. But he also said it's unclear whether the law conflicts with a 1996 federal immigration statute.

The federal law bars states from providing illegal immigrants "any postsecondary education benefit" unless citizens get the same consideration. But the law doesn't specify whether "benefit" means only direct financial aid such as scholarships and grants.

A California appeals court concluded that "benefit" in the federal law encompasses tuition discounts; the California Supreme Court is reviewing that ruling.

Bennan reportedly plans to seek a court ruling throwing out the Texas law -even though the Legislature has declined to specifically bar in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students who've lived here at least three years, stayed in school and promise to seek legal status as soon as they're eligible.

There's the real problem. These students were brought to the United States as children, and they have no idea when federal law will provide them a pathway to fonnalize their reality: They've grown up in the U.S., consider it home, have absorbed its language and culture, expect to be productive members of its society and would become citizens if only they could.

There's no question that the U.S. should enforce its laws to deter illegal immigration. But the vast majority of those who come into the country illegally do so for jobs, not for a break on the cost of college tuition. Making it harder for students who've been here for years to further their education might look tough, but it will defer good kids' dreams more than it will deter illegal immigration.