NBC News
By Griselda Nevarez
July 14, 2015
Shortly
after securing what they saw as a major victory for young immigrants
without legal status, Arizona immigrant advocates are facing an attempt
to wipe away the victory
awarding in-state college tuition.
The
state's Attorney General Mark Brnovich has appealed Maricopa County
Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson's ruling that young immigrants who
were granted protection
from deportation and work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are eligible to pay in-state tuition rates at
the Maricopa County Community Colleges.
The
appeal came several weeks after the Arizona Board of Regents, citing
the ruling, said DACA recipients also could begin paying in-state
tuition at the state's three
public universities as well.
Former
Attorney General Tom Horne filed the lawsuit challenging the Maricopa
Community College District's policy of allowing DACA recipients to pay
in-state tuition in
2013.
Daniel
Ortega, one of the attorneys who represented the DACA recipients in the
lawsuit, said he was "very disappointed" when he heard that Brnovich
had appealed the judge's
ruling. But, he expressed confidence that the appeal would fail. Ortega
also indicated that an unsuccessful appeals court ruling could have
statewide repercussions.
"If
the appeal fails, things will remain in place; DACA-approved Dreamers
will in fact continue to get in-state tuition," he said.
Brnovich
said in a statement to NBC News that DACA recipients do not have a
"lawful status" in the United States and therefore are not eligible for
in-state tuition. He
cited Proposition 300, a law approved by Arizona voters in 2006 that
denies in-state tuition to anyone who is "not a citizen or legal
resident of the United States or who is without lawful immigration
status."
"Our
appeal in the DACA in-state tuition case is about the rule of law and
protecting the will of Arizona voters," Brnovich said.
DACA was first made available in 2012 by the Obama administration to
so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who arrived or remained illegally
in the U.S. Most of them have
lived in the U.S. virtually all of their lives. Its recipients, more
than 600,000 to date, have to renew the status every two years.
After
Proposition 300 was implemented in Arizona in 2007, the number of
Dreamers who were pursuing higher education dropped significantly,
especially at the university
level, according to Arizona's Joint Legislative Budget Committee
records. In the spring 2007 semester, there were 1,524 Dreamers
attending the three state universities as out-of-state students. That
number dropped to 16 in the fall 2014 semester.
In
his ruling, Anderson said DACA recipients are "lawfully present" in the
country and thus meet the requirements for in-state tuition in Arizona,
despite Proposition
300. "Federal law, not state law, determines who is lawfully present in
the U.S.," he wrote.
As
of February this year, 18 states allowed students without legal status
to pay in-state tuition and three _ Arizona, Georgia and Indiana _
prohibited it, according to
the National Conference of State Legislatures.
German
Cadenas, a 28-year-old native of Venezuela who was undocumented for
more than 10 years before legalizing his status, said he remembers how
difficult it was to pay
out-of-state tuition as an undocumented undergraduate student. He
mostly relied on private scholarships, because his undocumented status
made him ineligible for state and federal financial aid.
Now
a U.S. citizen and president of the Graduate and Professional Student
Association at Arizona State University, Cadenas has been helping
coordinate a statewide effort
to advocate for in-state tuition for DACA recipients.
"I
think it's almost impossible for Dreamers, many of whom come from
low-income backgrounds and have immigrant parents who are probably
working extremely hard just to
get by, to be able to afford out-of-state tuition," said Cadenas, who's
also a doctoral student.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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