- The Trump administration has sued Texas and Kentucky over laws allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.
- Students wonder if the federal government will target California, which passed its law in 2001.
- States’ in-state tuition laws, often enacted with bipartisan support, have faced growing challenges.
For 24 years, immigrants lacking documentation who graduated from high school in California have received in-state tuition benefits at public colleges and universities under a law that has given tens of thousands access to higher education that many couldn’t otherwise afford.
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When the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 540 in 2001, it was the second state in the nation — after Texas — to embrace such tuition policies. Bipartisan efforts quickly grew across the country, with more than 20 states adopting similar policies.
But recent court actions by the Trump administration are causing alarm among immigrant students and casting a shadow over the tuition benefit in California, the state with the largest population of people living in the U.S. without legal authorization.
On June 4, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas over its tuition statute for immigrants without authorization, alleging it violated a federal law that prevents people who do not have legal status from receiving public benefits. Texas did not defend its law and instead put its support behind the Trump administration, leaving 57,000 undocumented college students in the state in educational limbo after a federal judge blocked the statute.
Last week, the Justice Department launched a similar suit in Kentucky, asking a federal judge to strike down a state practice that it says unlawfully gives undocumented immigrants access to in-state college tuition while American citizens from other states pay higher tuition to attend the same schools.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Atty. Gen. Bondi said of the Texas lawsuit in a statement that signaled a broader fight. “The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.”
Uhhh what equal protection?
Out of State Students pay more?
Now undocumented will have to do exactly what US Citizens have to do?
Now that is going to put a hole in Dem. illegal voting in Calif.
How about that……*Laugh*
Far too long in making this action.