A group of students, educators, and lawmakers rallied on Tuesday against proposed Georgia anti-immigrant laws that would ban undocumented immigrants from attending state universities.
“Our schools are here for Georgia citizens and citizens of the United States to prepare themselves for the work force,” said Senator Barry Loudermilk.
According to the University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby, an estimated 300 students of the 318,000 students enrolled in Georgia’s public universities, are undocumented. That number has already dropped from 500 due to the state’s efforts to crack down, according to Huckaby.
SB 458 has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and will now move onto the Senate floor, and is opposed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.
“I would say to the students and to all of the young people, not to give up,” said Representative John Lewis. “Another generation of young people, another generation of young people stood up. We created a mass movement … I think it’s a shame and a disgrace for the state of Georgia to move down that road.”
I am a community college student in Oakland and Berkeley, CA. Just yesterday we had an Occupy march from one of our colleges to downtown Oakland in support of public education and against budget cuts that hurt our community colleges and public universities. In the rally before the march, during open mike, I volunteered to speak about the injustice happening in AZ, GA, and AL. How AZ Gov. Jan Brewer (R), who signed the awful bill SB1070, backs presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R). I encourage everyone to register to vote (doesn’t matter what party), and kick these goons out who are destroying our families!!