In-state Tuition for Undocumented Students?

PBS NewsHour:

RICK KARR: According to the law, Cynthia Cruz is an undocumented immigrant, a Mexican citizen living in the United States. According to Cynthia Cruz, New Jersey is home ... because it's where her parents brought her when she wasn't even two years old ... and Mexico is very far away.

CYNTHIA CRUZ: I don't remember anything about it. I don't remember how it looks. I don't remember, like, where I lived, where I was born. I don't remember anything. All I know is the American culture.

RICK KARR: Cruz says American culture taught her that the key to success is education. So after high school, she went to a local community college, and then last fall to Rutgers, New Jersey's flagship public university. Her goal was a degree in public policy, but after only one semester on campus, she had to drop out because she ran out of money. As an undocumented immigrant, she couldn't get financial aid from the state, and she had to pay higher tuition than other New Jersey residents. If you're a resident of the state of New Jersey, the tuition and fees for one year as a full-time undergraduate at Rutgers is just over thirteen thousand dollars. If you're not a resident, it's going to cost you twice as much -- nearly twenty eight thousand dollars.

And that's the amount that students who are undocumented immigrants have to pay, even if they've lived the vast majority of their lives as residents of the state of the New Jersey. They support a bill in the state legislature that would allow them to pay the in-state rate. The idea is called tuition equity.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 1, 2013 12:23 AM
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