\n<\/p>\n
Undocumented students who grew up in the U.S. were allowed to pay in-state college tuition in roughly half of states. But now those benefits are under attack, and some states are walking back their policies, leaving thousands of students scrambling.<\/p>\n
This summer, the U.S. Department of Justice sued three states\u2014Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas\u2014over laws that permit noncitizens who grew up in these states to pay the same rates as their peers.<\/p>\n
In a shocking move, Texas sided with the federal government within hours of the first lawsuit in June, abruptly ending in-state tuition for noncitizens in the state. Now undocumented students in Texas and multiple civil rights groups are seeking to intervene and reopen the case. They argue Republican state lawmakers and the federal government colluded to reach a speedy resolution, and affected students didn\u2019t get to have their day in court.<\/p>\n
The defendants in the Kentucky case\u2014Gov. Andy Beshear, Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education\u2014have until mid-August to respond to an amended complaint from the DOJ. The Minnesota lawsuit has been assigned to a federal district judge. Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education received a summons in late June.<\/p>\n
The rash of lawsuits comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April calling for a crackdown on sanctuary cities and state laws unlawfully \u201cfavoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,\u201d citing in-state tuition benefits for noncitizens as an example. The recent DOJ lawsuits allege that these state laws favor undocumented students over American out-of-state students.<\/p>\n
As these in-state tuition policies become a political flashpoint across the country, here\u2019s what you need to know about them.<\/p>\n
Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition rates to certain undocumented students in 2001 when the Texas Dream Act was signed into law. California soon followed, enacting a similar law later that same year.<\/p>\n
Currently, 23 states and the District of Columbia have such policies, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. Another four states allow in-state tuition rates for noncitizens at some but not all public universities. And five states permit in-state tuition only for participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. For about a decade, Florida also allowed in-state tuition for undocumented students who met certain requirements, but the state rolled back the policy earlier this year. <\/p>\n
While in-state tuition for noncitizens has become a politically polarizing issue, these policies historically enjoyed broad support from state lawmakers of both parties. Republican and Democratic advocates argued that helping undocumented students who attended local high schools go to college would set these students on career paths that benefit state economies. Opponents now argue these laws incentivize illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
The Texas Dream Act was signed by Republican governor Rick Perry 24\u00a0years ago. He stood by the policy during his 2012 run for president, despite pushback.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they\u2019ve been brought there through no fault of their own, I don\u2019t think you have a heart,\u201d Perry said during a 2011 Republican primary debate. \u201cWe need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perry opposed the federal DREAM Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship, but advocated for in-state tuition decisions to be left up to states.<\/p>\n
The author of Oklahoma\u2019s in-state tuition law, enacted in 2007, was also a Republican lawmaker, Oklahoma representative Randy Terrill. His bill, which won bipartisan support in the state House and Senate, was signed into law by Democratic governor Brad Henry.<\/p>\n
Florida Republican governor Rick Scott signed a similar law in 2014, which was scrapped as part of broader immigration legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year.<\/p>\n
When asked about the prospect of the law\u2019s repeal in 2023, Scott told The Florida Phoenix <\/em>he was \u201cproud\u201d to have signed the bill and \u201cwould sign [it] again today.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Republicans rescinded their support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to repeal this law,\u201d Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez, former lieutenant governor of Florida and current president of Florida International University, wrote on X shortly before the law\u2019s demise. \u201cIt has served its purpose and run its course.\u201d<\/p>\n Each state law comes with different requirements, but undocumented students generally need to prove they\u2019ve lived in a state for a significant amount of time and attended local high schools to qualify for in-state tuition benefits.<\/p>\n For example, in Oklahoma, noncitizens must have graduated from an Oklahoma high school and spent two years with a parent or guardian in the state while taking classes. They also must sign an affidavit promising to apply for legal status when able or show proof they\u2019ve already petitioned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for legal status.<\/p>\n Undocumented students in Washington State must have spent their senior year at a local high school or earned a G.E.D. in the state, live in the state for at least three consecutive years, as of the date they graduated, and pledge to seek legal permanent residency as soon as legally possible.<\/p>\n These in-state tuition laws are typically crafted to offer in-state tuition rates to students who meet their specific criteria\u2014regardless of immigration status.<\/p>\n That means, in California, for example, any nonresident who spent three years in California high schools is eligible for in-state tuition. So, the policy not only applies to undocumented students but also U.S. citizens who perhaps grew up in the state but may have left and returned for any reason.<\/p>\n Similarly, before the Texas law was dismantled, out-of-state students could gain residency and eligibility for in-state tuition if they graduated from a Texas high school and spent at least three years prior in the state. The policy benefited citizens born and raised in Texas whose parents moved out of the state before they enrolled in college, according to an amicus brief filed by the Intercultural Development Research Association in 2022, when the law faced a legal challenge from the Young Conservatives of Texas.<\/p>\n Advocates for these policies say that\u2019s why they don\u2019t violate the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which prohibits states from providing higher ed benefits to undocumented immigrants unless citizens are also eligible. Trump cited the federal statute in his executive order.<\/p>\n Over the years, these laws have been challenged multiple times in court, but until the DOJ\u2019s lawsuit against Texas, none succeeded. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Undocumented students who grew up in the U.S. were allowed to pay in-state college tuition in roughly half of states. But now those benefits are under attack, and some states are walking back their policies, leaving thousands of students scrambling. This summer, the U.S. Department of Justice sued three states\u2014Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas\u2014over laws that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1417,4823,1418],"class_list":{"0":"post-11446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-instate","9":"tag-noncitizens","10":"tag-tuition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}3. <\/span>Undocumented students must meet specific criteria in each state to qualify.<\/strong><\/h4>\n
4. <\/span>The laws are designed to also apply to citizens.<\/strong><\/h4>\n