Articles

Providing some undocumented students access to in-state college tuition is building a hot-button issue this political season.

Half of the 50 U.S. states have either implemented or introduced legislation giving them access, with certain requirements, such as long attendance at in-state high schools and graduation.

So far, though, just seven have passes such legislation. Those include California, New York, Texas and Washington.

Since January 2003, legislators in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado and Virginia have introduced bill to deny all undocumented students access to in-state tuition.

About 65,000 students who lack documentation graduate every year from the nation’s high school. Of those, 37,050 are Latino, according to Jeffrey Passel, principal research associate of Washington, D.C.- based Urban Institute.

Most recently, the Maryland House of Delegates voted to allow undocumented students to be eligible for in-state tuition. The bill passed despite a legislative survey that showed state voters, by a narrow margin, opposed such legislation.

The organization Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement and other groups claim that this type of legislation discriminates against U.S. citizens.

“If you are going to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens, then the same right should be extended to out-of-state U.S. citizens,” said Craig Nelson, executive director of FILE.

Last year, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued seven Virginia state colleges and universities on behalf of Latino undocumented students seeking entrance to the schools on the grounds that they were denied admission due to their legal status. This February, a federal judge rules that the schools were within their rights to deny students admission, but the lawsuit moved forward on other claims.

MALDEF and other groups have played a key role in pushing legislation in various states, arguing that undocumented students should not be penalized for coming to the United States illegally as children.

“It is unfair to punish them for a decision made by adults,” said MALDEF legislative staff attorney James Ferg-Cadima. “In-state tuition gives them a realistic chance to achieve the American Dream by leveling the playing field.”

Opposing groups say that taking care of foreign-born undocumented students should not be the states’ responsibility.

“This type of legislation is a prime example of the mixed signals the federal government sends to illegal immigrants,” said David Ray, spokesperson for the Federation of American Immigration Reform. “They get rewarded for violating federal law.”

Requirements for these students to qualify for in-state tuition include high school attendance for at least two years, high school completion and an agreement to sign an affidavit promising to seek legal immigration status.

The price differential between in-state fess and out-of-state fees can be dramatic. For example, attending Northern Virginia Community College costs a sate resident $64 per unit, while an out-of-state student pays $22,169.

Two bipartisan bills have been introduced in Congress to repeal the federal residency requirement for higher education.

The DREAM Act allows undocumented minors to gain legal status and permits states to offer them in-state tuition. Another bill, the Student Adjustment Act, offers similar relief.

Neither bill is expected to reach the full House or Senate floors before the end of this legislative session.

In Alaska, Sate Rep. Bob Lynn, who represents South Anchorage, supports denying undocumented students in-state tuition. “To ask out-of-state students to pay higher fees while giving preferential treatment to illegal aliens that broke the law is simply illogical to me,” said Father Thomas Moffatt, Lynn’s chief of staff.

Eighteen-year-old Nancy from Texas, who came to the United States at the age of four, aspires to a medical career. She sees her only path to legal status as legislation like the DREAM Act.

“I want to have the opportunity to give something back to this country that has given me so much,” she said. She hopes to enroll in San Jacinto College North in Houston next year and pay in-state tuition.
For current information about the DREAM Act go to http://www.nclr.org/content/policy/detail/1331/

Reprinted with permission of Hispanic Link. For more information visit http://www.hispaniclink.org