Legislators in Georgia and Arizona are advancing bills that would allow illegal immigrant students to pay in-state tuition at state schools, though American citizens from other states would still pay out-of-state tuition. Meanwhile, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that would allow illegal immigrant students to access state financial aid and school-based aid, even though they already pay in-state tuition.
The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act states that anyone “not lawfully present” in the United States is not eligible for “any postsecondary education benefit,” unless citizens have the same eligibility for that benefit.
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Arizona taxpayers were already subsidizing tuition for DACA students; the state’s Board of Regents voted unanimously in 2019 to set state school tuition rates for these students at 150 percent of the in-state cost. This discount means that non-citizen students who graduate from Arizona high schools can go on to pay less for college than a U.S. citizen from another state.
The Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that would permit state financial aid to go to illegal immigrant students. Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to sign the bill. Virginia enacted taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in 2020. Read more…
