AP
By Kate Brumback
March 9, 2016
Immigrant
rights attorneys on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the Georgia
university system’s policy of denying in-state tuition to students
brought to the country illegally as children
but who have been granted temporary permission to stay.
The
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the federal
lawsuit on behalf of an immigrant rights group and two immigrant college
students who graduated from Georgia high
schools and live in the state but are required to pay out-of-state
tuition at Perimeter College.
The
lawsuit names as defendants the individual members of the Board of
Regents, which governs the university system, as well as about two dozen
state college and university presidents.
University System of Georgia spokesman Charlie Sutlive declined to comment on pending litigation.
An
Obama administration policy introduced in 2012 granted temporary
permission to live and work in the U.S. to young people brought to the
country illegally as children who meet certain criteria.
The
University System of Georgia requires any student seeking in-state
status for tuition purposes to provide verification of “lawful presence”
in the U.S. The Regents have said students
with temporary permission to stay under the 2012 program — known as
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — do not meet that requirement
The
lawsuit says the policy is pre-empted by federal immigration law and
therefore violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. The
policy also violates the Constitution’s equal
protection guarantee by denying in-state tuition without a
constitutionally valid justification, the lawsuit says.
“In
an era when too many purported leaders maliciously target hardworking
immigrants prepared to contribute to our nation’s future success, this
Georgia university policy is antithetical
to the state’s own interests,” MALDEF president and general counsel
Thomas A. Saenz said in a news release. “The policy is also unlawful,
and this suit promises to reopen the doors of higher education to some
of the state’s best and brightest students.”
The
lawsuit asks a judge to declare the university system’s policy illegal
and to prohibit its enforcement. It also seeks damages for economic harm
suffered by the two students and the immigrant
rights group, as well as repayment of tuition fees and other costs.
One
of the two students, Lorena Guillen, said she’s thinking about leaving
school because she can’t afford the higher rates. The other student,
Karla Lopez, has a pre-med major and wants
to become a doctor. She takes a lower number of credit hours each year
than she’d like to because of the higher tuition rate, the lawsuit says.
Because of that, it will take her more than four years to get a degree.
The
Georgia Latino Association for Human Rights works to promote Latinos’
rights, including the right to education. The group has had to use time
and resources that would otherwise be used
for other purposes to help students who are not eligible for in-state
tuition, the lawsuit says.
A
group of immigrant students previously filed a lawsuit challenging the
policy in state court, but that suit was dismissed based on the
principle of sovereign immunity, which shields the
state and its agencies from being sued unless the General Assembly has
explicitly waived that protection.
Charles
Kuck, a lawyer for those students, has said he plans to take legal
action in state court against the individual members of the Board of
Regents, who are not protected by sovereign
immunity, because he believes they are failing to follow their own
rules and guidelines by refusing in-state tuition to young people who
are lawfully present in the country.
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