According to The Los Angeles Times, a recent California Supreme Court ruling decided to reject a challenge to California’s policy of granting reduced, in-state tuition at its colleges and universities to graduates of its high schools who are illegal immigrants. The ruling allows for illegal immigrants in college to qualify for in state tuition, a decision that is very controversial and highly debated. Some argue that in state tuition for illegal immigrants simply isn’t fair, while others desire for illegal immigrants in California to be helped out in anyway possible to better their lives.
“The justices turned down an appeal from lawyers for a conservative immigration-law group that contended “preferential treatment” for illegal immigrants violated federal immigration law,” the article states. “They cited a little-known provision in a 1986 law that barred states from giving “any postsecondary benefit” to an ‘alien who is not lawfully present in the United States ? on the basis of residence within a state.’”
However, last year, a supreme court ruling in California declared that the state’s policy did not conflict with federal law because the tuition benefit turned on a student’s high school graduation, not the person’s residency. The 2001 law stated that the state would give in-state tuition to a qualified student who attended a high school in California for three years and graduated.
