Higher Education for Illegal Immigrants

(I have to admit that I'm in the middle of writing a paper about this for one of my classes, so a lot of this is from one of the drafts. But since I have been coming across a few articles about the education of illegal immigrants and the funding of it, I thought it was appropriate to say something.)

The United States is a nation of immigrants who have settled in the country looking for better opportunities. Many immigrate in search of the “American Dream,” which refers to the freedom to pursue their goals through hard work. In other words, many people immigrate to the United States in the pursuit of bettering their economic conditions. One way of improving your economic status is through attaining an education. In most cases, the higher level of education you have achieved the more money you will make. Nevertheless, there have been several political debates on the basic rights and privileges of illegal immigrants; one of which is on the access to education of illegal immigrants and the children of illegal immigrants.

Currently there are several state legislatures in the United States are debating whether to allow illegal immigrant students to get in-state rates at state universities and colleges. Since the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is stuck in Congress, a number of states have decided to try to deal with the in-state tuition issue themselves. States including Connecticut and New Jersey would allow any students who graduated from high schools in the state, whether or not they were legal residents, to qualify for lower tuition, while Missouri and Kansas are explicitly banning the practice. The absence of definitive legislation at the federal level regarding the education of illegal immigrants in higher education and the consequences that holds on the state and local levels. California is a great example of a state having to deal with the vagueness of federal legislation with Proposition 187.

This past Wednesday, Colorado has passed a bill that will allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition. The bill violates a federal law that bars states from offering illegal immigrants any benefits that are not offered to citizens from other states. However, ten states, including Texas and Utah, have already passed similar laws. Although several states have moved toward granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, many states still do not even allow illegal immigrants to matriculate at their public universities. These states do not even allow illegal immigrants to pay the out-of-state tuition for the public universities.

In a time where many universities are losing money and many students are unable to pay for college because of the lack of financial aid available, it would make sense to allow anyone who can be accepted, to attend, regardless of immigrant status.  The News and Observer released an article on the 20th of March which stated that "it's cheaper to admit illegal immigrants than to keep them out." Revenue would increase not only because of illegal immigrants paying out-of-state tuition, but also because schools would spend less money on verifying immigrant status.

While an increase in revenue for colleges would be great in this economy, I am concerned with the lack of interest in providing higher education to illegal immigrants. In the past, laws that restricted the access to education to illegal immigrants and/or their children have been found to be unlawful.  For example, in 1982, in Plyler v Doe, the Supreme Court decided that illegal immigrants and their children, although not citizens of the United States, are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The law that the Supreme Court overturned in this case had disadvantaged the children of illegal immigrants by denying them the right to an education.

Isn't the unequal access to higher education also a violation of the fourteenth amendment? I am interested in seeing what happens with the DREAM Act. Last week, the DREAM Act was reintroduced to House and Senate.  I hope that when they are voting for or against the act, they consider all sides of the issue and figure out how illegal immigrants will be able to gain access to higher education within the United States if the DREAM Act is not passed.

Higher Education for Illegal Immigrants