Dive Brief:
- Young illegal immigrants in Virginia who were allowed to stay in the U.S. under the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are now eligible for in-state college tuition.
- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring made the announcement Tuesday, a few months after the state legislature defeated “Dream Act” bills that would have accomplished the same results for the group of young people frequently referred to as "dreamers."
- More than 8,000 young illegal immigrants in Virginia are now eligible for in-state tuition. At the University of Virginia, the in-state rate for tuition and fees is $12,998 per year, compared to $42,184 for out-of-state students.
Dive Insight:
Granting in-state tuition to young illegal immigrants is a political football game, of course, with politicians angling for the votes of immigrant communities and those who support leniency for illegal immigrants. In this case, Herring is a Democrat who made a similar end run around the Republican-controlled state legislature when he declared state’s gay marriage ban to be unconstitutional after legislators failed to overturn the ban. Still to be determined is the fiscal impact of the issue on state universities. In-state tuition for young illegal immigrants who meet state residency requirements is now available in 20 states, according to the Washington Post. In addition to Virginia, they are: Maryland, Texas, California, Utah, New York, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii, Michigan, and Rhode Island.
