Back in 1996, when there was bipartisan consensus that the interests of American citizens should be protected against illegal immigration, Congress enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which denied many taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens. Importantly, one section in the Act severely restricted the ability of public colleges and universities to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
The intent of Congress could not have been clearer. “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident,” states the law that was signed by President Bill Clinton.
Nevertheless, today, 24 states offer deeply discounted tuition to illegal alien residents. Nineteen of these and the District of Columbia also offer state financial aid to illegal alien residents who cannot afford the in-state tuition rates. None of them offers the same benefits to U.S. citizens who are residents of other states.
On April 28, President Trump signed an executive order instructing Executive Branch agencies to identify sanctuary jurisdictions with the intent of withholding certain funding to these states and localities. Again, IIRIRA provides the statutory basis for this action. The law prohibits state and local governments from preventing employees from sharing information with federal immigration authorities. The same executive order also seeks to remedy inequities that favor illegal aliens over U.S. citizens. These include “State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.”
Some states have skirted the unmistakable intent of the law by making eligibility for in-state tuition benefits contingent on having graduated from a high school or having received a GED in that state, rather than on one’s residency. That effort to undermine the intent of the 1996 law was led by Texas, which enacted the Texas Dream Act in 2001. (In more recent times, Texas has emerged as a bulwark against illegal immigration and the Legislature is currently considering a bill to repeal in-state tuition benefits for illegal aliens.)
The issue is more than the cost of subsidizing college tuition for illegal alien residents, which runs into the tens of thousands of dollars per year, per student. It is also a matter of unfairness to citizens and legal immigrants hoping to pursue their dreams of a higher education. College admissions are a zero-sum game. For every illegal alien who is admitted to a state university, there is someone else who does not get it in.
Given the crushing costs of attending a private university, a seat at a public institution is the only viable option for most college-bound students. Thus, those who lose out to an illegal alien admitted to a state university at in-state tuition rates are not only denied a seat at that school, but they and their families are forced to subsidize the education of someone who has no legal right to be in the country. Moreover, taxpayers are unlikely to see a return on their investment on illegal alien students who will remain ineligible to work legally in the United States after graduation.
The disadvantages faced by American students who are turned away from an affordable education at a state university because that seat has been taken by an illegal alien will carry on throughout their lifetimes. Workers with a bachelor’s degree, on average, will earn $1.2 million more over the course of their careers than those who do not attend college.
Favoring the interests of American citizens over those of illegal aliens was precisely the intent of the IIRIRA. While the president’s justifiable attempt to target sanctuary policies that jeopardize the lives and safety of the public has grabbed much of the attention, the provision targeting in-state tuition policies may have the biggest impact on the lives of Americans. Few interests could be more compelling than ensuring that qualified American students are not denied access to, or face prohibitive costs in their pursuit of the education they will need to succeed in the 21st century economy.
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