Providence - A state higher education board is planning to vote on a measure that would allow students who immigrated to the United States illegally to pay in-state tuition rates at Rhode Island's public colleges and universities after the General Assembly declined to take up the issue.

The 13-member Board of Governors for Higher Education planned to hear public testimony on the policy change ahead of a vote Monday evening at the Community College of Rhode Island's Warwick campus.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee threw his support behind the measure Sunday, saying it would improve the state's "intellectual and cultural life" and allow more Rhode Islanders to attend college. In addition, those developments would make for a stronger work force and would boost the state's flagging economy, he said.

"All that separates these young people from the thousands of other students who gain entry to Rhode Island's public colleges and universities each year is the place where they were born - a factor none of us can control," Chafee, an independent, said in a statement.

In-state rates would be available only to illegal immigrants' children who have attended a high school in the state for at least three years and graduated or received an equivalent degree. They also would have to commit to seek legal status as soon as they are eligible.

Currently, in-state undergraduate tuition at the University of Rhode Island is $9,824, compared to $25,912 for out-of-state students. The state has two other public higher education institutions: the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College.

The General Assembly did not act on a bill this year that would have granted the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition - legislation that has been introduced every year for over a decade.

Groups demanding stricter enforcement of immigration laws oppose tuition breaks that they say are an incentive to illegally enter the United States. Terry Gorman, executive director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, says the change is akin to "aiding and abetting" illegal immigrants and is unfair to students paying higher out-of-state rates.

Gorman, who has repeatedly testified at the Statehouse against the change, calls in-state tuition "an invitation" for more illegal immigration.

"I've met a lot of these students," Gorman said Monday afternoon before the vote. "My heart goes out to them, but their parents put them in this situation."

His group has also called the board's planned vote "undemocratic," saying a policy change of this sort should be taken up by the legislature, not an unelected board.

"This is a back-door circumvention of the legislative process," he said.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 12 states - including Connecticut - have laws allowing the children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state rates if they meet certain requirements. Several states have also passed legislation barring in-state benefits for illegal immigrants.

A federal bill known as the DREAM Act that would allow illegal-immigrant students to remain in the country legally has repeatedly fallen short of the votes needed to pass Congress. Students would be granted legal status providing they were under the age of 16 when they entered the U.S., have been in the country at least five years and have graduated from high school.

Amanda Pereira, a freshman at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and a graduate of Classical High School in Providence, has testified repeatedly in favor of the Rhode Island bill and spent time lobbying legislators. She came with her family to the U.S. from Brazil when she was 6 and says "this is the country that I know as my home."

Pereira, 18, was granted permanent residency last spring along with her parents and brother - a process she says took over a decade. But she has kept up the fight, saying she could have hit an educational dead end herself if her green card hadn't come through.

"Basically, it's just a matter of equality. The students that have been here and have worked hard deserve the same educational opportunities as those who were born here," she said.

State Rep. Edith Ajello, a Providence Democrat who has co-sponsored the Rhode Island legislation, sees the issue not just in educational terms but economic ones.

"The more people that we can educate to 21st century standards, the better our economy will be," she said Monday. "These young people are invested in Rhode island. They've been educated here in our elementary and secondary schools. They want to stay here."

She said the students' families are already contributing to the state's economic base by paying sales and other taxes.