Senate DFLers outline immigration proposal

03/09/2006

But governor’s office calls it: ‘Lax on illegals’

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Meda Esperanza Paradise, who was born in Ecuador, became the first member of her family to graduate from high school, thanks, she said, to Minnesota’s Adult Basic Education programs.

“My parents believed that education was a waste of time, especially for a girl,” Paradise said.

High school student Victor Sanchez has lived in Minnesota for 14 years.

“I am just as American as anybody here,” said Sanchez, but because his parents brought him here from Mexico without proper paperwork he won’t receive the in-state tuition rate if he attends a public college.

Paradise and Sanchez are two immigrants Democratic-Farmer-Labor senators want to help in their package of immigration proposals unveiled Wednesday.

Unlike Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s immigration proposals released in the last few months, the senators do not include a crackdown on illegal immigration.

“Gov. Pawlenty is pleased to have Senate Democrats join the discussion on immigration reform; however, we don’t think the DFL proposals go far enough in cracking down on illegal immigration,” said Brian McClung, spokesman for the governor.

Instead of including measures to rein in illegal immigrants, the Senate proposal is a “positive immigration policy,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope.

Despite the differences, there is some overlap between Pawlenty’s plan and the Senate’s.

Both include tax credits to help immigrants bear the cost of seeking citizenship, toughen penalties on human traffickers and push the federal government to change immigration policy. Both proposals would also offer businesses help in providing employees English language classes. The governor would do this through a $3 million grant fund; the Senate through a $5,000 tax credit for businesses.

“We like some of his ideas,” Rest said.

But the Senate also would increase the current five-year cap on special funding for English language students at public schools to seven years. That proposal would cost about $5.5 million over two years and would increase the number of students who are able to gain English proficiency, said Sen. Wes Skoglund, DFL-Minneapolis, that measure’s sponsor.

The proposal also would increase funding for the Adult Basic Education programs that helped Paradise earn her education and enough money to bring her son to Minnesota from Ecuador.

“I am one among millions of women in the world whose education gets neglected during our childhood years,” the St. Paul resident said.

In her family, boys were educated through the sixth grade and girls were expected to work on the farm until they got married. Rather than living that life, she left Ecuador, came to Minnesota and worked at minimum-wage jobs. She also attended Adult Basic Education classes to learn English and now hopes to go to college.

“I am the first in my family to obtain a high school diploma,” she said.

Under the Senate proposal, higher education also would be more attainable for immigrant high school students. If passed, students who had attended a Minnesota high school for at least two years and were accepted at a Minnesota college would pay in-state tuition, rather than the price charged to students from out of state no matter what their immigration status.

Right now, students from Minnesota pay about $3,570 for a full load of undergraduate classes at the University of Minnesota. Students from outside Minnesota pay about $9,385.

The Senate measures also would increase penalties on those who facilitate sex tourism and begin regulating “mail-order bride” organizations to make sure they are not being used for exploitative means.