DENVER — Emboldened by support from Latino voters, Colorado Democrats on Friday renewed their call for a plan to help reduce tuition costs for undocumented immigrant students.
This time, however, they’re the party in power, and such a proposal stands a far better chance of becoming law.
Also, with their new advantage, Democrats can shape a tuition plan to their liking, as opposed to presenting a more limited pitch in the hope that it wouldn’t be shot down outright by their Republican rivals.
In the aftermath of this week’s elections, Democrats went from a one-vote minority in the House to a comfortable 37-28 majority, and the party maintained control of the Senate.
The last two years, House Republicans defeated illegal immigrant tuition plans. One such plan would have created a special rate for illegal immigrant students higher than that paid by legal state residents, but lower than what out-of-state students pay.
Given the new balance of power at the Capitol, however, Democrats aim to fashion a bill that goes further than what they were trying to sell Republicans as the minority party.
“I think the thought process was to try to build a bipartisan coalition to get the bill passed,” Democratic Rep. Crisanta Duran said Friday, after speaking to a cheering crowd of students and Latino community leaders at an alternative Denver public school for Hispanics.
