AUSTIN, Texas — On the first day of bill filing for the 84th Legislative Session, Texas State Representative Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) filed HB 209, which would repeal a 2001 law allowing illegal immigrants to get in-state tuition at Texas universities if they met certain criteria. The legislation was cheered by conservative grassroots activists, who have long opposed allowing illegal immigrants to pay the lower in-state tuition rates charged to Texas residents as one of the “magnets” that creates incentives for people to illegally cross the border.
As Breitbart Texas reported on Monday, Stickland, who was reelected last Tuesday, filed HB 209 to fulfill a campaign promise he had made that he would “file this bill on day one.” Stickland told Breitbart Texas that “the idea that we would treat someone who is here illegally better than someone who is here from Oklahoma is atrocious.” In announcing the bill, Stickland posted a tweet saying that it was “time to put Texas kids first.”
JoAnn Fleming, the executive director of Grassroots America, applauded Stickland “for keeping his word” and told Breitbart Texas that granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants was “just one example of how the rule of law has been undermined by elected officials to the point where we have chaos in our nation and folks who believe they ‘deserve’ special treatment,” adding, “it’s time our state officials put Texas citizens and legal residents first.” Fleming continued, “To give illegal aliens preferential treatment over American citizens is a slap in the face, and the American people are just fed up with it. Last Tuesday’s elections proved what we already knew — Texans want our southern border with Mexico truly secured and the social enticements to illegal aliens to end.”
Fleming also told Breitbart Texas that her organization would be including HB 209 among the bills that they would be monitoring and grading legislators for how they vote during the upcoming legislative session.
Alice Linahan, Vice President of Women on the Wall, told Breitbart Texas that she was “happy to see Representative Stickland following through with legislative action after listening to his constituents on the campaign trail.” The issue, according to Linahan, is about the “27 million Texans” who live in this state. “We actually matter,” said Linahan, and she deemed Stickland the kind of elected official who “doesn’t just talk the talk, but actually walks the walk.”
Even among those who might not be in favor of HB 209, Stickland’s honoring of his campaign promise was acknowledged. Quorum Report’s Scott Braddock tweeted, “Let it never be said that [Stickland] is not a man of his word.”
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter at @rumpfshaker.
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