PREP-KC's Community Resource Page
Senate Bill 590 - modeled after Alabama’s immigration reform law - would create several new points at which state and local government officials must check the immigration status of anyone who could be in the country illegally.
"Students who graduate from Missouri high schools, live in the state and want to attend college should not be punished for their immigration status."
"Undocumented students already cannot receive state or federal financial aid."
"An important first step to productive citizenship is education. If the Missouri Legislature decides to hold appropriations to our public colleges and universities hostage to the requirement that those institutions charge immigrant students (deemed “not lawfully present”) a nonresident or international tuition rate, we will be moving backward in our state’s efforts to create a talented and engaged workforce."
"These legislators want Missouri’s higher education institutions to charge these students the highest tuition rates possible, which would be as out-of-state students, even though most of them grew up here. Schools that don’t charge the maximum tuition are being threatened with loss of state funds."
In all, legislators have filed five bills this year that would make it more expensive for undocumented students to enroll in one of Missouri’s public colleges or universities.