SACRAMENTO – A last-minute bill working its way through the Legislature would allow community colleges to waive fees for low-income undocumented immigrant students who graduated from California high schools they attended for at least three years. The bill, on the Assembly floor late Thursday night, could cost taxpayers $1.6 million per year, according to a state Senate analysis. The bill language was thrust into an unrelated piece of legislation so it could be adopted by the end of the session today. The measure would provide a free community-college education to an estimated 3,000 students statewide who attended high school here but are not legal U.S. residents.

"This is the first I've heard of it," Chris Mowrer, higher education aide to Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea, said Thursday afternoon. "This is the time of year when this sort of thing happens."

If passed and signed by the governor, the bill would change the Education Code to permit the state's 108 community colleges to enroll undocumented immigrant students who meet certain income requirements without charging them the state-required fees of $18 per unit.

An earlier, more sweeping bill that would have provided financial aid at state colleges never made it out of the Assembly appropriations committee, after consultants estimated that AB153 would cost taxpayers more than $10 million per year.

Instead, the community-college provisions of that bill were pasted into SB328, which originally dealt with court funding and already passed the Senate unanimously. The bill's author, Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, said he could have waited to pass the bill next year but said it was important to help students now.

"We wanted to see if we could help some of these students as soon as possible," Calderon said. "Now undocumented students can go to community colleges for free." Phil Yarbrough, trustee with the Rancho Santiago Community College District, said the state can't afford to educate students who are in the country illegally, though he sympathizes with their plight. "When is it going to end?" Yarbrough said. "People who are here illegally have not contributed fully to our educational system," Yarbrough said. "We already have a plan for foreign nationals. They pay what it costs to produce their class, and that is fair." But Mary Gill, interim vice chancellor for governmental relations, said the bill enjoyed broad support among community-college advocates. She denied the bill was a so-called gut-and-amend piece of surprise legislation.

"There have been hearings and analysis all the way," Gill said, about AB153. "I have testified three times over it."

Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, disagreed and criticized the rush of 200 bill amendments that have occurred in the final week of the legislative session.

"This is a complete abuse of a process that is set up to provide public input," Campbell said.He also questioned whether it was appropriate to increase the number of students eligible for financial aid during the state budget crisis.

Calderon said he was sensitive to the state's budget concerns, but saw this bill as a high priority in helping students. He said he feels confident that he could have passed the original bill with just the community-college element.

University of California, Irvine senior Laura Peralta, 22, who helps recruit minority students, said community-college fee waivers would be nice, but immigrants really need financial help to attend higher-priced campuses.

"More students are kept out of those colleges than community colleges," Peralta said.