Hard Lessons in Immigration Law

That's because it's a question not only of cost -- out-of-state tuition is about three times as much, enough to tip the balance from a college degree to nothing at all for some -- but of identity.

For critics, undocumented residents are illegals -- freeloaders who take away jobs and form gangs. Others see valedictorians, hardworking families and the American dream hobbled by red tape.

About the only thing they agree on is that the system is broken.

Millions of illegal immigrants have entered the United States in recent decades, and more than 20 years ago, a Supreme Court ruling established certain rights: Public primary and secondary schools cannot deny an education to foreign-born children, no matter how they got here or what their legal status is.

A generation later, some of those kids are graduating from American high schools.

Their parents' stories are often complicated, with laws broken and laws followed, rules complied with and deadlines missed, and the children caught up in the ugly tangle of Catch-22s that follows illegal immigration. Others are just stuck, waiting for approvals.

Maria Pereyra, Lidia and her siblings left Mexico on a bus about a decade ago to sneak into the country, she said. They were joining her father, Isidro Pereyra, who has been a permanent resident for many years, working legally and paying taxes. They started the application process to become legal residents right away, but it often takes many years. Two of the children were born in the United States and so are citizens, but the others need green cards. She's now just one step away, but she needs to pay more than $1,000 on top of application fees.

As an unauthorized immigrant in 2004, Pereyra found that although she could enroll in nearby Lord Fairfax Community College, she didn't qualify for in-state tuition. And she couldn't get state or federal financial aid.

Friends in town jumped in to help, raising money to cover the difference last year.

This year, she's on her own.

Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr.'s (R-Augusta) bill would ban in-state tuition for illegal immigrants but carve out exceptions for students such as Pereyra who have lived in Virginia for years and graduated from high schools in the commonwealth, whose families have paid taxes and who are actively seeking U.S. permanent residency.

A bill in Congress estimated that about 65,000 students could be eligible nationally -- most of whom don't go on to college. Some analysts guessed hundreds or possibly even a few thousand would qualify in Virginia.