Source:
Associated Press(05-06) 04:00 PDT Sacramento --
College students who entered the country illegally appear closer than ever to receiving financial aid in California.
On a party-line vote of 51-21, the state Assembly approved a bill Thursday that allows those students to collect privately funded college scholarships.
Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles and the author of AB130, has introduced a similar bill yearly since 2005. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed the legislation repeatedly, but Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown made a campaign pledge to sign it.
Dozens of Democrats in the Assembly spoke in support of the bill, arguing that students should not be punished because their parents brought them into the country illegally. They said immigrant labor makes comfortable, middle-class standards of living possible and that California should reward skilled and educated immigrants.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/06/BAG11JCKN5.DTL