Proposed legislation that would make the children of undocumented immigrants ineligible for in-state college tuition is stalled in the House Rules Committee.

HB239, which has twice failed to emerge from the committee, would repeal a nonresident tuition exemption passed by the 2002 Legislature.

Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, said he hasn't given up on his bill, which would repeal the law that makes undocumented high school graduates who have attended a Utah high school for three years eligible for in-state tuition.

Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, who sponsored the law Donnelson is trying to repeal, sits on the Rules Committee.

"It's going to be extremely hard to keep it in rules," Ure said Friday, noting that only 15 to 20 students a year have been affected by the law.

"I can tell you from personal experience, in Park City, many of these students are quite advanced mentally, but know they don't have a chance to go on to higher education and they drop out," he said.

This is the second year Donnelson has tried to repeal Ure's law. Last year's bill was never passed to the floor for debate.

"It might be unfair to give illegal aliens (in-state tuition), when we don't give it to people from, say, Nevada," Donnelson said. "I think it's a fairness issue."

Donnelson has also introduced HB330, which would repeal a 1999 state law that allows the use of a temporary identification number (ITIN), issued by the Internal Revenue Service to obtain a Utah driver license. The ITIN is issued for tax return purposes, regardless of immigration status.

Donnelson said the ITIN number isn't a secure way to validate a person's identity.

In December, the IRS announced steps to strengthen controls over the ITIN system after it found that about one-quarter of ITIN numbers were never used on a tax return.

The new steps will help ensure ITINs will only be issued for those who mean to use them for tax purposes.

The bill died last year when it was sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, who lost re-election.

Donnelson said he doesn't know if the driver license bill will have more support this session.

"Maybe the mood in Washington will help change it," he said, referring to a federal bill introduced by U.S. House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wisc., which would invalidate driver licenses issued by states that allow illegal immigrants to get them so they would be useless for federal identification purposes.

If it passes, Sensenbrenner's bill would mean a person wouldn't be able to use a Utah driver license to board an airplane, unless the state repealed the law allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers' licenses.