Barack Obama urged California’s governor yesterday to sign legislation that would make some illegal immigrants eligible for the state’s need-based aid program and for fee waivers provided to low-income students at community colleges, according to the Associated Press.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill last year. At the time, the governor said that opening up the aid programs would penalize students who lived in the state legally and rely on financial assistance.
Mr. Obama, a Democrat and senator from Illinois, said that if the governor kills the bill a second time, “he will compound the immigration crisis by driving thousands of children who are on the right path into the shadows,” according to the AP.
Under the measure that passed the California Legislature, illegal immigrants who attend a high school in the state for at least three years and graduate would become eligible for the aid programs.
The state already allows such students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges.
