New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Monday that he will not sign the state senate’s version of a bill that allows students who came to the country illegally to pay in-state tuition rates, according to CBS New York.
“They’re overreaching and making it unsignable and making the benefits richer than the federal program, the federal Dream Act,” he said on a Townsquare Media monthly call-in program. “That’s simply not acceptable for me.”
The senate bill allows students who came to the U.S. illegally to apply for financial aid, whereas the assembly version only allows students to acquire the in-state tuition rate.
Christie said that the senate bill would offer so many benefits that undocumented immigrants would flock to the state in order to go to college. The governor said he hopes to find a compromise with the legislature before the end of the lame duck session.
Christie, considered a potential front-runner in the 2016 presidential election, supports legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates and said he supported a pathway to citizenship in 2010, but he has recently declined to take a clear stance on national immigration policy.
