I serve on the Committee for Children. During the off-session, we held four public input meetings across the state. The number one issue by advocacy we heard was from 30+ Dreamers requesting that we pass legislation that would (a) allow them to pay in-state tuition, (b) receive state scholarships if met requirements, and (c) obtain occupational licenses. South Carolina is one of just a handful of states penalizing Dreamers in the above fashion.
SC has approximately 6,400 Drea...mers living in state. A Dreamer is someone who has applied for legal status (coming out of the shadows), pays $500 every two years (hundreds of millions in this fee alone), has no criminal record, enrolled in school, military, or work, and entered into the US prior to the age of 16.
Four real life testimonies include (a) Maria who entered the country at 3, graduated in the top 20% of her SC high school, and works to pay out-of-state tuition at USC, (b) Jackie who entered the country at 3, drove illegally to high school until DACA allowed her to obtain a driver's license, attended Columbia College, but cannot become her dream of a physician assistant because of occupational licensing prohibition, (c) Jose who entered at 4, grew up "saying the pledge of allegiance," has 2 degrees, purchased a home, and wants to be a teacher but cannot, and (d) in Charleston, Stall High School's valedictorian was a Dreamer yet could not receive state scholarship, in-state tuition, or become anything occupationally licensed.
As you can tell, at no fault of their own, we have thousands of children and young adults in SC wanting to live the American Dream. To deny children that have only known SC as their home the same rights as their classmates serves little purpose in the face of our American ideals.
As a fiscal conservative, the only question remaining is cost. First, we must realize that Dreamers and their parents pay billions in fees and taxes (including billions to Social Security with no return). Second, in-state tuition and licensing have no cost. State scholarships would. Based upon statistics, at most 50 Dreamers per year would take advantage of state scholarships (Palmetto Fellows/Life/Hope).
Finally, some believe states should wait until federal officials determine the legal status of Dreamers with a March 2018 deadline looming. On the contrary, SC should have acted years ago and should now act immediately. Should the federal government extend DACA, the three issues above exist indefinitely. Should the federal government end the legal status, SC will still have legal status Dreamers in the state until at least March 2020. That's two years of Dreamers graduating high school, paying higher ed tuiton, and not pursuing their dreams and careers (SC has already allowed 5 years of graduates unequal access) - that should be unacceptable and urgent to our body.
I serve to be a voice. That voice gets me in trouble. However, listening to 30 Dreamers' testimonies this off-session, I cannot be quiet. I hope we can help 6,400 young adults and children in SC this year. So, yesterday, I filed H4435: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess122_2017-20…/bills/4435.htm