PHOENIX (AP) - Frustrated by the influx of illegal immigrants, some US states are trying to make this country less inviting to those who sneak across the border. Other states are moving in the opposite direction, trying to offer illegal immigrants many of the privileges citizens enjoy. Lawmakers in Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, New Mexico and Nebraska have considered allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition rates. Iowa lawmakers have looked at making it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver's licences. On the other side of the debate, a new Utah law will replace licences for illegal immigrants with driving-privilege cards that cannot be used to board airplanes or register to vote. A Virginia lawmaker wanted to bar illegal aliens from attending the state's universities. The most restrictive measures lately have come from Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the nation's porous southern border. "We may not be able to secure the borders as we would like," said Republican state representative Russell Pearce. But "we don't have to allow them to get free stuff". Arizona voters last year approved a law that denies some welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. Now Arizona lawmakers are trying to bar illegal immigrants from attending adult education classes, obtaining child care assistance, or receiving in-state status at public universities or state-subsidised college financial aid. Many states have long been frustrated by what they consider the federal government's failure to crack down on the flow of illegal aliens or overhaul US immigration laws. Last month, the Pew Hispanic Centre, a private research group, reported that there were an estimated 10.3 million illegal immigrants living in the United States last year, an increase of about 23 per cent from in 2000. The Homeland Security Department announced in March that it is assigning 534 additional agents to the Arizona border, bringing the total there to about 3,000. President George W Bush wants to allow some illegal immigrants to remain in this country under a special work programme but has run into opposition from his conservative Republican base. In the meantime, Arizona and other states complain that they must shoulder tens of millions of dollars in costs each year for health care and schooling for illegal immigrants and for locking up those who break the law. Many of the proposed state restrictions against illegal immigrants have a variety of purposes: tightening security post-September 11, making this country less attractive, reducing the burden on states, and sending a message to Washington. Many of the pro-immigrant proposals are aimed at incorporating illegal aliens into society more smoothly and making use of the big pool of cheap labour they represent to employers. Advocates for immigrants say that only Congress can confront the central reason for illegal immigration: Immigrants can earn more in an hour in the United States than they could in a whole day at home. "Clubbing people because of their illegal status isn't going to make them legal or make them leave," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum. But Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favours tighter borders, said: "If we are ever going to get a handle on this huge problem, we have to make it clear to the people who come here illegally that their presence here will not be tolerated." Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com