Trump sues to end tuition benefits for undocumented students
For 24 years, immigrants without documentation who have graduated from secondary school in California have received services in the state in the state in public colleges and universities under a law which has given tens of thousands of access to higher education that many could otherwise afford.
When the California Legislative Assembly adopted Bill 540 of the Assembly in 2001, it was the second state of the country – after Texas – to adopt such tuition policies. Bipartite efforts have quickly increased across the country, with more than 20 states adopting similar policies.
But the recent legal actions of the Trump administration cause an alarm among immigrant students and throw a shadow on tuition fees in California, the state with the largest population of people living in the United States without legal authorization.
On June 4, the US Ministry of Justice continued Texas about its tuition fees for immigrants without authorization, alleging that it had violated a federal law which prevents persons who did not have the legal status to receive public benefits. Texas did not defend its law and rather supported the Trump administration, leaving 57,000 undocumented students in the state in educational limbo after a federal judge blocked the law.
Last week, the DoJ launched a similar prosecution in Kentucky, asking a federal judge to suppress a state practice which, according to illegally, illegally gives undocumented immigrants access to the school fees of colleges in the State while American citizens of other states pay higher education costs to attend the same schools.
“Under the federal law, schools cannot offer advantages to illegal foreigners that they do not provide to American citizens,” Atty. General Bondi said about the Texas trial in a statement that pointed out a wider fight. “The Ministry of Justice will fight tirelessly to justify federal law and will ensure that American citizens are not treated as second -class citizens in the country.”
Is California the next one?
Legal experts say it is not a question of “if” but when and how the Trump administration will come for California’s law. The White House is already fighting against the State on liberal policies, including the support of transgender students in school sports; Sanctuary cities opposing federal raids during immigration; and the diversity, equity and inclusion programs in education.
“We are just waiting to see when it’s California’s turn,” said Kevin R. Johnson, the Dean of the UC Davis Law School, specializing in immigration. Johnson predicted that the White House was going after “fruits to maintain” in more conservative states before California, where Trump will face “firm resistance”.
The potential threat has shook the undocumented students from California.
“If I no longer qualified myself for tuition fees below, I really don’t know what I would do,” said Osmar Enríquez, who graduated last month with a diploma as a associate of Santa Rosa Junior College and enrolled in UC Berkeley in August to embark on a first cycle diploma in media studies.
The difference between tuition fees in the state and outside the state for people like Iríquez can be thousands of dollars in a community college and tens of thousands on CSU and UC campuses. International students pay prices outside the state. At Santa Rosa Junior College, the average tuition fees for two semesters for a student in the state are $ 621. For a student outside the state, it’s $ 5,427.
“What I see that the Trump administration is doing is trying to exclude us,” said Iríquez, who aspires to one day exploit a public relations company. “They don’t want us to educate ourselves or reach positions of power. And with everything that is going on now, they just try to dehumanize us in all possible ways. ”
Over 80,000 undocumented students in California
Campus and university level data on undocumented students may be difficult to estimate.
Although universities and colleges follow the number of students without documentation receive exemptions from tuition fees under AB 540, data also include citizens who are eligible for tuition fees in the state. These students grew up in the state and graduated from a high school in California before their family moved elsewhere.
The figures are also complicated by the changes in the application of California Dream Act, which was created for students without documentation to apply for state aid, but has widened to allow students who are citizens and who have an undocumented parent.
Out of nearly 296,000 students from the University of California system, he estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 are undocumented. In California State University campuses, there are about 9,500 immigrants without documentation registered on 461,000 students in total. The largest unadvised group in the state, estimated at 70,000, includes students from community colleges and recent graduates such as Enríquez.
Born in Mexico and brought by his family to the United States when he was a year old,, Iríquez said that tuition fees in the state have made its education monumentally more affordable. At his next judgment, UC Berkeley, tuition fees and state -of -the -year fees have increased at $ 16,980. Students outside the state and international had to pay a total of $ 54,582.
What students say
Several UCLA undocumented students, Cal State Los Angeles and other schools refused interviews with the Times or asked to be cited without their name, saying that they were afraid of identifying themselves publicly while the federal government undertakes a third week of immigration raids in southern California.
“I just want to go to school. What’s wrong with that? ” said a graduate student undocumented to Cal State Los Angeles who obtained his undergraduate diploma in a UC campus. The student in Latin American studies asked that his name be retained because of his concerns concerning agents of the application of the Immigration Act.
“I don’t just want to go from a school, I want to go to a public university. I want to contribute to my university. I want to become a teacher and teach others and support the state of California, “he said. “Why are we so determined to prevent students from receiving an education and restoring?”
Sandra, a student from Cal State Northridge who asked to be identified only by her first name, had a similar view. An undocumented immigrant whose parents brought her from Mexico to Los Angeles at the age of two, she said that she would not be at the University without the law on school fees in the state.
“I was not eligible for the DACA, so the money is thin,” said Sandra, referring to the Obama era program who gave work authorization to undocumented immigrants who have arrived in the United States as a child, but have not taken new requests since 2021. “We are sparing and we are deleting everything we can get out of scholars Make an income later. “
Legal issues
The challenge of the Trump administration to the rules of tuition fees was based on a 1996 federal law which indicates that people in the United States without legal authorization should “not be eligible on the basis of a residence in a state … for any advantage of post-secondary education unless a citizen or a national of the United States is eligible for such an advantage … without regard resident.”
“There are questions about exactly what it means,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, co -director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA Law School. “Does this apply to universities that do not use residence as a requirement for the school rate but rather use the graduation of secondary schools in the state?” He said, explaining that state practices differ.
In California, an undocumented immigrant who did not graduate from a state high school would not generally be eligible for the reduction of tuition fees.
The Ministry of Justice has argued before the court that the transmission of tuition fees in immigrants without appropriate authorization violates federal law. Some Trump opponents point out that the law does not speak specifically about school rates, although the courts have interpreted the word “advantage” to include cheaper tuition fees.
In the recent Texas affair, undocumented students, represented by the Mexican Defense and Education Fund, filed a request for justice, asking the judge to enable them to challenge to support reduced education rates.
Tuition fees have survived other legal challenges.
Before the Trump administration intervened, the law of Texas seemed to be legally healthy after a federal court of appeal ruled in 2023 that the University of Northern Texas could invoice students outside the state more than it invoices undocumented immigrants to the State. In this case, the court declared that the complainants had not argued that the students of the state were treated illegally differently from the non-citizens. But the court suggested that there could be other judicial disputes at school rates for immigrants without documentation.
California has also resisted the challenges. The Supreme State Court confirmed its legality in 2010 after the students outside the state continued. The following year, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the case.
The California court concluded that undocumented immigrants did not receive preferential treatment because of their immigration status but because they attended and graduated from California schools. The judges said that American citizens who attended and graduated from state schools had the same opportunity.
However, Momentum has been built to abolish school rates in the State for immigrants without legal documentation.
This year, Florida legislators – who had a rule on books for more than a decade, allowing derogations from tuition fees for undocumented students – eliminated the option. Before the federal action against Texas, state legislators also attempted and did not follow the example of Florida. During this year’s legislative sessions, bills were also presented in Kansas and Minnesota, although they are not adopted.
