Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, called on Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson to issue an opinion on the matter before lawmakers convene in February.

"For every illegal alien given in-state tuition or a scholarship, that is an in-state student being deprived of those same benefits," Terrill said.

"Illegal aliens are, in fact, taking seats in colleges and taking scholarships away from U.S. citizens."

Others say Terrill's move is just politics.

"I think the reason for this is to keep immigration in the forefront during this election year," said Shirley Cox, director of social action at Catholic Charities in Oklahoma City.

Ben Hardcastle, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, said about 215 illegal immigrants attend Oklahoma colleges, according to a February 2005 survey of all campuses.

That's about 0.1 percent of the state's college students.

Terrill questions the survey's validity and contends that the figure understates the number of illegal immigrants in state schools.

Two federal laws enacted in 1996 ban states from providing in-state tuition or other privileges to noncitizens unless the same opportunity is given to legal residents of other states, he said.

That means that if students who are in the state illegally are allowed to pay in-state tuition, then legal residents of Kansas or Texas, for example, also should be allowed to pay in-state tuition to attend Oklahoma schools, he said.

In-state tuition rates typically are thousands of dollars less than what out-of-state students pay.

U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., has tried to make the tuition rate an issue in his campaign for governor.