Tuition Break For Tennessee’s Undocumented Students Falls One Vote Short

A plan to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students has fallen one vote short of passing the state House of Representatives.

The measure, House Bill 675, would have granted a tuition break to an estimated 7,000 high school graduates brought to Tennessee illegally when they were minors.
To qualify, students had to have graduated from a Tennessee high school and registered with the Obama administration’s
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The proposal received 49 votes, two more than were cast against the bill. But the measure needed 50 for passage.

Three Nashville lawmakers missed the vote, including House Speaker Beth Harwell
. The Republican lawmaker says she would have voted against it anyway.

“It is a slippery slope that begins, and there are a lot of people that are naturally born here that are struggling to pay for college tuition,” she said. “If we’re going to do this for them, I do believe, let’s do away with out-of-state tuition altogether.”

Democratic Reps. Darren Jernigan and Bo Mitchell were also absent. They said they would have voted for the bill, if they’d been present. Both cited work reasons for missing the vote.

The vote didn’t kill the measure, technically. But it would take a two-thirds vote to bring it back to the House floor, making it unlikely to come up again until January.

Supporters of the proposal argued in-state tuition would make these students more productive members of society. Backers included several tough critics of illegal immigration.

Getting these lawmakers to support the idea was a major step forward, says Eben Cathey, advocacy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. He said his organization will continue to try to convince legislators by connecting them with students who might benefit from the legislation.

“Forty-nine yeses, that’s a lot. I think it really shows how much work we’ve put into this over the past four years,” he said. “It’s not over.”