LITTLE ROCK—When Gov. Mike Beebe came out against a measure to limit state services for illegal immigrants, saying it largely duplicates laws already on the books, he was only partly correct.

- Arkansas’ two largest colleges offer in-state tuition rates regardless of a student’s immigration status; that would disappear under the proposed constitutional amendment.

- While hospitals are generally required to provide emergency care to all, the Arkansas Department of Health offers additional services beyond critical care without checking a patient’s papers; that, too, would disappear.

- And all recipients of state benefits programs are not checked against a federal immigration database before taking government aid; that, too, would change if voters pass a ballot measure put forth by a group called Secure Arkansas.

Secure Arkansas plans to use only volunteer signature gatherers to collect 61,974 valid signatures needed by July 7. The group began collecting signatures in earnest Tuesday as voters went to the polls for the state’s primary election. Beebe’s office released the governor’s statement the previous afternoon.

“If some of the principles of this ballot title make sense to you, it may be because they are already the law of the land,” Beebe said in the statement.

But the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway both offer students in-state tuition if they have official transcripts from a state high school. Officials at both schools said applications had spots for potential students to write down their Social Security number, but that officials processed the paperwork if the space remained blank.

“We don’t check to see if they’ve got documentation,” said Steve Voorhies, a spokesman for the University of Arkansas.

Need-based financial aid requires potential students to fill out a federal form known as the FASFA—the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Voorhies said that form required a proper Social Security number or other identification.

The same rules apply at UCA, said university spokesman Warwick Sabin.

“The UCA financial aid form is a simple, one-page form that does not require a Social Security number,” Sabin said. “However, in order to process anything involving federal financial aid, UCA would eventually require a Social Security number.”