INDIANAPOLIS — State Rep. Rebecca Kubacki had plans for her return to the General Assembly next January.
The two-term Republican from Kosciusko County wanted to exert “full force” to roll back a law that prevents the children of undocumented immigrants from paying in-state tuition to attend state colleges and universities.
Kubacki, a conservative and the daughter of migrant workers, envisioned granting in-state rates to undocumented students in return for their promise to complete a degree, perform community service and stay in Indiana. The best and brightest, as she saw it, could become teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs – not to mention role models to immigrant children everywhere.
“These are the kids we want to stay in our state,” she said. “Instead we’re just kicking them in the teeth.”
But Kubacki won’t be coming back to the General Assembly. In May, she lost in the Republican primary to a tea party candidate. She’d been targeted for not supporting an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. With her loss came the loss of the only Republican Latino in the Legislature.
Kubacki is not going away quietly. Until her term is done, at year’s end, she plans to fiercely advocate for children whom she believes are Indiana’s most disenfranchised.
This summer, as a member of the State Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana, she’s serving on a task force examining the education of juveniles in state prison. Their graduation rates are deplorable, and she wants to devote more resources to those children to reduce the risk of their returning to prison as adults.
She’s hopeful someone will carry the water for both immigrants and jailed children when she’s gone. But she knows they’re unpopular constituencies without much voice “in the hallway” – the power spot where lobbyists huddle outside legislative chambers.
As congressional gridlock stalls immigration reform, Kubacki says states should move ahead.
Indiana is one of only five states that specifically prohibits colleges from charging in-state tuition to undocumented students or bars them from attending public college. Other states, including Texas and California, have eased access to their state colleges and public scholarship funds.
Proponents of banning undocumented students from paying in-state rates argue that lawbreakers shouldn’t be rewarded for entering the United States illegally, and that only lawful residents should qualify for resident tuition.
“I believe in the rule of law. We’re a nation of laws,” is Kubacki’s response. “But these children didn’t break the law, their parents did. But they’re paying for the sins of their fathers.”
While working to convince fellow Republicans of the merits of her argument, Kubacki has also actively supported the Indiana Latino Scholarship Fund. Its annual dinner, earlier this month, raised $325,000 to help first-generation Latino students attend college.
That’s not enough money, she argues, to help all of the undocumented children who’ve grown up in Indiana, attending K-12 public schools, who could make important contributions if allowed to continue their studies.
“Why are we fighting this?” she asks. “Let’s be honest, these children aren’t leaving.”
As she sees it, there are two options: Indiana can deny these children an education, creating a permanent underclass of undocumented immigrants who may need a lifetime of taxpayer-funded services. Or it can open the door to the American dream.
Kubacki may be leaving the Statehouse, but she’s not losing her voice.
“I’ve seen these kids who work so hard and never give up their dream of going to college,” she said. “So I can’t give up on them.”
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