California DREAM Dies Again: Governator Once Again Strikes at Undocumented Immigrants for Political Gain

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed the California Dream Act, the second time in two years that he had rejected a proposal by California Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) to extend college financial aid to undocumented immigrant students. The legislation would have made California high school graduates who met the nonresident in-state tuition requirements eligible for the Cal Grant financial aid program and a fee waiver at community colleges.

Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure, citing its cost:  “At a time when segments of California public higher education, the University of California and the California State University, are raising fees on all students attending college in order to maintain the quality of education provided, it would not be prudent to place additional strain on the General Fund to accord the new benefit of providing state subsidized financial aid to students without lawful immigration status.”

Cedillo said that college administrators supported the bill. According to the L.A. Times, “Cedillo said the governor objected last year to a version of the bill that might have allowed some illegal immigrants to get financial aid before all qualified legal residents received aid. But the senator said the new bill required that all requests by legal residents be filled before aid could be made available to others.”

Governor Schwarzenegger has a history in the state on the issue of undocumented immigration.  He engineered the denial of driver’s license to undocumented immigrants, thereby ensuring that police lacked basic records of millions of people and that many drivers on our roads lack safety testing and liability insurance; all of these consequences negatively impact U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.  By denying access to undocumented immigrants to our public universities, the Governor’s veto of the DREAM Act hurts our economy and residents of our state.

Latinos supported the Governor in large numbers in past elections.  Time will tell whether this will hold true in the future.

KJ