Colo. Republicans Kill Bill to Let Illegals Pay In-state Tuition

Colorado Republicans Monday managed to defeat a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges, the Denver Post reported Tuesday.

The Democratic-controlled Senate last week passed the bill in a party-line vote. Proponents of the bill had hoped that it could get by in the House, which is almost evenly divided between the two parties.

However, the House Education committee, a panel that includes moderate Republicans, killed the bill Monday. All the GOP members on the panel voted against it, including the only Hispanic Republican in the House, Rep. Robert Ramirez.

Ramirez, whose father immigrated legally to the United States from Mexico in the 1960s, said he agonized over the vote.

"It saddens me no matter how I vote," Ramirez said.

On the one hand, he said, he did not want to create an underclass of uneducated people, but on the other, he did not want to send the wrong message.

"Yeah, it's the parents of some of these children that violated the law," Ramirez said."Are we teaching a new generation of our country that it's OK to violate the law? That scares me."