State university presidents pressured Beacon Hill lawmakers Tuesday to pass legislation they say would mitigate President Trump’s decision to end the federal policy permitting those who came to the country illegally as minors to stay.
Moments after US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration’s move to rescind the program, known as DACA, the head of the nine-university system’s Council of Presidents sent a letter to legislative leaders asking for “immediate” action on the legislation. The bill would extend in-state tuition rates to “undocumented students” who have previously qualified under DACA.
“Simply put, passage of the bill would allow us to continue what we have done for the past several years and extend to all our Massachusetts students in-state tuition,” wrote Vincent Pedone, executive officer of the State University Council of Presidents.
Under a federal executive order, public higher education institutions offer students in the country illegally the same rate provided to legal residents, as long as they have lived in Massachusetts for 12 continuous months. The bill’s advocates say it would enshrine the order’s provisions into the state’s general laws.
“Passage of this legislation would allow DACA students in Massachusetts to continue to receive the in-state tuition rate, regardless of changes made to the program by the [f]ederal [g]overnment,” Pedone wrote to Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo.
Massachusetts public officials have been critical of Trump’s immigration policies. Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, said Monday he was “hoping the president doesn’t repeal the DACA program.”
Baker, Rosenberg, and DeLeo issued statements Tuesday condemning the federal decisions, but none directly addressed the state bill.
The legislation pushed by state university presidents is co-sponsored by members, Senate Majority Leader Harriette Chandler and House second assistant Majority Leader Michael J. Moran, who are key allies of their respective chambers’ leaders. Currently, the measure sits in the Joint Committee on Higher Education.
“Like so much else that has been filed as legislation, it was a backup plan, Plan B,” Chandler said Tuesday afternoon. “Well, Plan B is here.”
Moran, who broke with most of his legislative colleagues last year in backing US Senator Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, said a special panel formed by DeLeo earlier this year would “take a serious look” at the bill this fall.
The higher education officials’ pushback came amid widespread condemnation of Trump’s decision. Shortly after Sessions’s announcement, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive said he had decided to resign from the president’s National Diversity Coalition.
Jim O’Sullivan can be reached at jim.osullivan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JOSreports.