Illegal immigration creates a great deal of confusion, and it becomes much worse when Georgia’s political leaders don’t take and hold a firm position to not grant any more benefits and privileges to illegal aliens than already required by the feds. A good example is the current confusion surrounding the GA 03 Primary Election runoff between former state Senator Mike Dugan and Trump-endorsed Brian Jack.
It appears there are two separate matters circulating on what legislation Dugan voted for and cosponsored as a state senator involving instate tuition for illegal aliens at Georgia’s taxpayer funded public colleges and another bill that involves the existing Dual Enrollment program. Dual Enrollment includes illegal aliens in the nifty benefit of paying zero tuition in those schools (not even books and fees).
Because it’s so confusing, it seems that the two topics may have become inadvertently intertwined by a few casual observers.
As a Senator, Mike Dugan voted for HB 444 in 2020. HB 444 is now law. The bill dealt with the Dual Enrollment program. Because it grants no-cost college tuition to illegal alien high school students, that gem is in bad need of “reform.”
In 2023 Dugan was number two cosigner on SB 264 which was a Democrat bill that would have removed the existing twelve-month waiting period for some new Georgia residents to qualify for instate tuition. The bill would not have benefitted Americans, but would have allowed refugees, “Special Visa Immigrants (‘SIVs’)”, and recipients of immigration “parole” (see here but we advise reading the entire page) to bypass the new resident waiting period and to become eligible for instate tuition “immediately upon settlement.” SB 264 died in committee.
It is important to know that under current policy both USG and the TCSG policies already allow illegal aliens who have been granted parole to access instate tuition. SB 264 would only have eliminated the waiting 12 month period for them. Again, as I have written previously, the proposed change would not have applied to an American who migrated to Georgia from another U.S. state.
All of the above happened well before the senseless and preventable murder of Laken Riley in February of 2024.
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