Lawmakers approved the measure in a 40-35 vote after a brief debate. HB241 is one of several immigration-related bills that have recently passed in the House and are waiting to be heard in the Senate.
Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, said there's no point for undocumented students to go to college if they can't legally get jobs and might be forced to forge documents.
This is Donnelson's fifth consecutive attempt to kill the 2002 law, but marks the first time it passed in the House.
HB241 would repeal a law that allows undocumented students who graduate from a Utah high school to pay in-state college tuition at state universities and colleges. Those students who register for school before Sept. 30, 2010, would be exempt.
In the 2006-2007 school year, about 280 undocumented students at Utah's nine public colleges and universities paid in-state tuition - one-third of them attending Salt Lake Community College. That's an increase of about a 100 students from the previous year.
