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Beebe: Hispanics have 'disconnect' with non-Hispanics on illegal immigration Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau CONWAY - The Hispanic community has a "disconnect" with non-Hispanics on the issue of illegal immigration, Gov. Mike Beebe told a group of University of Central Arkansas students Wednesday. Beebe was fielding students' questions in a public forum on the UCA campus when a student mentioned legislation in Congress that would put children of illegal immigrants on a path toward citizenship, as long as they came to the U.S. with their families before turning 16 and they plan to attend college or join the military. The measure failed a test vote in Wednesday in the U.S. Senate. The student, Manny Sepulveda, asked what Beebe is doing for students in Arkansas who want to attend college but may not be in the country legally. "What are we doing on the state level? Absolutely nothing, because it would violate federal law, or at least it would open the state up to paying moneys that we could never afford with regard to illegal immigrants," Beebe said. The governor, who took office this year, said when he was serving as state attorney general in 2005 he had to tell the Legislature there were problems with proposed legislation to provide college scholarships and in-state tuition rates to the children of illegal immigrants. "The problem is, there was and still is a federal statute that says if you do that - it doesn't say you can't do that - it says if you do that, then you have to provide that same opportunity for every American citizen," Beebe said. The legislation, supported by Beebe's predecessor, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, passed the House but fell just short of approval in the Senate. Beebe said Wednesday said he did not want to paint all Hispanics with one brush, but added, "one of the things that the Hispanic community has in effect a disconnect with, with the non-Hispanic community, is the whole issue of 'illegal.'" "If it is illegal, it means it's illegal," the governor said. He said the federal government's failure to enforce immigration laws has resulted in about 11 million people being in the country illegally. He said he took an oath as governor to uphold the constitution and the laws, "and that will guide me." Sepulveda, an officer of the Latinos United organization at UCA, said later he was "totally disappointed" with Beebe's answer. "He ducked the question of what can be done. (He said) what he won't do, instead of saying, 'I can't do this because of my belief, but this is what I can do,'" he said. Beebe "doesn't (care) about Latinos in this state," Sepulveda said. Beebe has spoken out on illegal immigration several times in the last few months. In September, Beebe said he had asked the state police to pursue an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow state troopers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. In August, Beebe praised a legislative committee for taking up the issue of illegal immigration in an interim study and indicated he might be in favor of state legislation to address the problem. "I think it's healthy for us to be discussing this and I think it's healthy for the committee to be providing the information, and I think it will provide a road map for what, if any, legislative changes need to be brought forth," Beebe said then. |
