Illegal
Immigrants Rarely Use Hard-Won Tuition Break
by KARIN FISCHER
Chronicle of Higher Education:
Government and Politics
From the issue dated December 10, 2004
Sent by Rafael Ojeda rsnojeda@aol.com
Some states offer in-state rates,
but students still have trouble paying. Most high-school students
sign up for Advanced Placement classes to get a head start in college
course work. For Rodolfo Salazar, they were a substitute for a college
education he feared was out of his reach.
As an illegal immigrant, Mr.
Salazar -- who was born in Mexico and crossed the border with his
family shortly before his 10th birthday -- could not qualify for
in-state tuition rates or student aid in Texas, where he earned solid
grades at Houston's Lee High School. And his mother, a janitor, could
not afford out-of-state tuition, which was triple that paid by Texas
residents.
"I wanted to make the most of
my experience," says Mr. Salazar, now a soft-spoken 21-year-old.
Taking the AP classes "made me feel a little less rejected."
Fortunately for Mr. Salazar, in
June 2001, just as he was graduating from high school, the Texas
Legislature passed a law extending in-state tuition benefits to illegal
immigrants who had attended a high school in the state for at least
three years, provided they signed an affidavit pledging to seek
permanent residency. The reduced tuition and a pair of scholarships made
it possible for Mr. Salazar to attend the University of Houston, where
he is now a junior majoring in business.
Since Texas became the first state
to provide in-state tuition benefits to its high-school graduates who
are not legal residents, seven other states, including Illinois and New
York, have passed similar laws. The issue has been the topic of debate
in recent years in 21 additional state legislatures, as well as in
Congress.
While supporters of the measures
say they open the doors of higher education to those who need it most,
critics argue that the policies are a giveaway of taxpayer dollars.
Indeed in Kansas, the most recent state to enact the in-state-tuition
legislation, opponents have filed a lawsuit charging that it violates
the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, as well as a 1996 immigration law.
But lost within the rancor is the
simple fact that few students who qualify for the lower tuition rates
are actually taking advantage of them. In some cases, immigrant students
lack the academic preparation needed for college. In others, even the
in-state tuition rate is too high for such students, and financial-aid
programs are still largely closed off to them. What's more, many illegal
immigrants are simply unaware of the programs.
Only about 30 illegal immigrants
registered for resident tuition at Kansas institutions this fall, far
short of the 370 anticipated. Of the 348 students taking advantage of
Washington's cheaper fees this semester, nearly one-third are
international students on temporary visas. Texas seems to be the
exception. Some 6,500 students have attended colleges through the law,
though even the program there got off to a slow start.
"When these laws were being
debated, a lot of the opponents spun a doomsday scenario in which state
universities would be inundated with illegal immigrants sucking money
out of the state treasury," says Travis J. Reindl, director of
state policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities. "The experience is, if anything, demand for these
programs is smaller than expected."
A Guide Is Needed
Like Mr. Salazar, Gabriel (who
asked that his last name not be used because he fears repercussions if
he publicly reveals his immigration status) thought Lee High School
would be the end of his academic career. Then one day David Johnston,
the school's college counselor, cornered him between classes. He wanted
to know why Gabriel, now 21, had not taken the SAT.
"I really believed there was
no option," says Gabriel, who came to the United States from Mexico
City as a toddler. Like many immigrant students, he has been waiting for
years -- in his case since before the 2001 terrorist attacks
-- for his legal-residency application to work through the federal
backlog.
Today Gabriel is a sophomore
majoring in social work at Texas Southern University. He is one of many
improbable success stories at Lee, an inner-city high school where 95
percent of the 2,100 students receive free or reduced-cost lunches. A
quarter are illegal immigrants, whose families crossed the border
without documents or overstayed a visa. Ninety-four percent are members
of minority groups. Last year 23 percent of Mr. Johnston's seniors went
on to a four-year college; an additional 31 percent headed for a
community or technical college.
Undocumented immigrants have been
a presence in American schools since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
1982, in Plyler v. Doe, that all children, regardless of immigration
status, were entitled to a free elementary and secondary education.
Profiles of Every Senior
The next generation fills Mr.
Johnston's counseling center, researching college options or refining
admissions essays on a half-dozen computers.
To make higher education a reality
for as many of Lee's students as possible, Mr. Johnston compiles
extensive profiles of each senior, including academic standing,
financial means, and immigration status. He is, in his own word,
"creative" in devising ways for Lee's graduates to go on to
college. A future teacher may be directed to cosmetology school, a
moneymaking detour that will make four-year college financially feasible
one day. Hispanic students, who make up 77 percent of Lee's student
body, may end up at historically black colleges, which are eager to
bestow full scholarships on Mr. Johnston's academic superstars.
"I tell them there are many,
many doors that all go to the same room -- college," he says.
These days, when Mr. Johnston's
telephone rings, the parents and teachers on the other end of the line
are often from high schools hundreds of miles from Houston seeking
advice on Texas' tuition break for illegal immigrants. Mr. Johnston's
expertise in the law is known through his effort to put the legislation
into place and through interviews he has given to the state's
Spanish-language news media. Both Mr. Johnston and his counterpart in
the Austin school district, Alejandra Rincon, say that even three years
after the measure became law, eligible students, particularly in rural
districts, are failing to take advantage of the benefit. Many simply
don't know it exists; those who do lack an informed guide. "Those
students are going unserved," Ms. Rincon says. Navigating the
admissions and financial-aid process for illegal immigrants
"requires some knowledge," she says. "It requires more
work."
In Texas and the other seven
states, outreach has been on an ad hoc basis. Information is featured
prominently in the admissions material of some colleges and in the fine
print of others. In many instances, nonprofit organizations, like Kansas
City's El Centro social-service group, have taken the lead, reaching out
to high-school guidance counselors, college recruiters, and religious
congregations.
And while some institutions, like
Oklahoma City Community College, are focusing on students in middle
school or younger in their recruitment efforts, staff members at other
institutions, like the administrator at one Texas college who initially
refused to provide in-state tuition to a student because he lacked
proper immigration documents, remain unversed in the laws.
"It can be a challenge for
those people on the front lines," says Rose Ann Blanco, director of
the Houston branch of an educational-service center run by the League of
United Latin American Citizens, a civil-rights group.
Other Obstacles
Immigration status isn't the only
obstacle for these students. Even with reduced tuition rates, a college
education may be unattainable for families trying to get by on
minimum-wage jobs. Federal law forbids illegal immigrant students from
receiving federal loans and grants; work-study jobs are also out of the
question.
Of the eight states with in-state
tuition laws on their books, only two, Texas and Oklahoma, offer state
financial aid to illegal immigrants. A third, Utah, allows the students
to qualify for only one of its aid programs.
Because of their lower cost,
community colleges tend to far outpace four-year institutions in
enrolling undocumented immigrants. Twenty-two of the 30 students
enrolled this fall under Kansas' new law are attending two-year
colleges. In Texas, where a credit hour costs $33 at a community college
and $106 at a four-year university, more than 75 percent of the illegal
immigrant students taking advantage of the tuition break attend the
two-year programs. "Realistically, tuition is still very
high," says Sue Storm, a Democrat in the Kansas House of
Representatives who sponsored the state's law.
And thinking a college education
was out of their reach, many of these students are academically
unprepared for college, higher-education officials say. They have not
taken classes like calculus, and many attend poor, understaffed urban
schools that do not offer the variety of AP courses of their suburban
counterparts. "They have what I would call built-in headwinds that
militate against going to college," says Michael A. Olivas, a
University of Houston law professor who helped write the Texas law.
Concern Over Privacy
In some states, specific
provisions in the laws may depress enrollment. Oklahoma, for instance,
collects data on undocumented immigrant students, and college officials
say that discourages some eligible students from applying to college for
fear of publicly revealing their status.
State officials say the data will
be used only to monitor the success of the law. Still, Gloria Cardenas
Barton, registrar and dean of admissions at Oklahoma City Community
College, admits to some unease as she separates the roughly 85
qualifying immigrant students into a distinct category in the college
computer system. "It's an uncomfortable process, openly identifying
students whose status is not legal," she says. "I feel a
certain guardianship of the records."
Those fears are not without basis.
In 2002, after Jesus Apodaca, an 18-year-old illegal immigrant from
Colorado, was quoted in a newspaper article about the fight for in-state
tuition benefits there, U.S. Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo, a Republican,
tried to have Mr. Apodaca and his family deported.
Partly in response to the Apodaca
case, Colorado's General Assembly earlier this year considered
legislation blocking public colleges from charging in-state tuition to
students in the state illegally. Although the Colorado bill died, there
seems to be a push back to offering resident tuition to illegal
immigrants in other states.
In addition to the Kansas court
challenge, some Arizona lawmakers hope to build on the success of a
recent ballot initiative that denies public benefits to illegal
immigrants by promoting legislation to block the state from offering
college tuition breaks. The California Republican Assembly, a
conservative organization, is working to collect enough signatures to
put a proposition on the ballot prohibiting people not in that state
legally from qualifying for any government aid. "It's a twisted
system that gives a benefit to someone who breaks the law," Mike
Spence, the group's president, says of California's in-state-tuition
law.
Waiting on Congress
Even so, the majority of the 21
states that have considered resident-tuition measures have recently
sought to extend the benefit to illegal immigrants. Only two states,
Mississippi and Alaska, have forbidden public colleges from spending
state funds on tuition benefits for immigrants without legal documents.
(One other state, Virginia, passed legislation prohibiting illegal
immigrants from receiving resident tuition, but it was vetoed by Gov.
Mark R. Warner, a Democrat.)
While in-state tuition proposals
that deal with immigrant students are likely to be introduced again when
legislatures convene early next year, many states are waiting for action
by the federal government. Congress recessed this year without taking
action on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, known
as the Dream Act, which would make students who live in the country for
at least five years eligible for federal student aid. States would have
the option to provide in-state tuition benefits under the proposal.
Most critically, the Dream Act
would permit qualified students to become temporary legal residents,
putting them on the path to permanent legal status.
The Dream Act's sponsor, Sen.
Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, is expected to reintroduce the
measure next year, but it is unclear how the legislation will fare.
Groups on both sides are waiting to see how the Bush administration,
which has been publicly silent, weighs in on the bill.
Unless the Dream Act is passed,
illegal immigrant students and their families are making "a leap of
faith," says Josh Bernstein, a senior policy analyst at the
National Immigration Law Center. With no certainty of legal status after
graduation, many immigrant parents may be hesitant to pay even reduced
tuition to send their children to college. Despite a college degree,
they could end up back where they began, working in the underground
economy because private companies rarely hire illegal immigrants.
Mr. Salazar, the University of
Houston student, will be among the first classes of students to graduate
under Texas' resident-tuition law. But he knows his dreams of starting
an investment club may have to be put on hold.
"I'm not pessimistic, but I
try to be realistic," Mr. Salazar says. "What if the Dream Act
doesn't pass? I'm going to be left holding a diploma." He pauses. "But it won't be a
waste. What I'm getting is invaluable."
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