New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to give illegal aliens brought to the U.S. as children under DACA free tuition at the state’s public colleges.
Cuomo, a Democrat, included a provision in his $168 billion budget that would change the state’s education law to make illegal alien children who were part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program eligible to receive free tuition through the Excelsior Scholarship, the New York Post reported.
The scholarship gives students free tuition at any New York State public college if their families make $125,000 or less, regardless of grade-point average or standardized test scores.
The only condition of the program is that students remain in the state for the “number of years equal to the reward received” to keep the scholarship, meaning that students who receive the free tuition must live and work in the state or pay the money back.
Not everybody in New York state government is on board with the governor’s proposal. Republicans in the New York State Senate say they would oppose Cuomo’s plan to give free college tuition to illegal aliens.
“We don’t support giving free college tuition to people who are here illegally,” said Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif.
Cuomo proposed other policies that would extend benefits to DACA recipients this week.
The New York Democrat announced Tuesday that DACA recipients would receive Medicaid coverage in the state regardless of federal government action.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.