latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-0607-court-tuition-20110607,0,770265.story
Supreme Court allows California to grant in-state tuition to illegal
immigrants
The high court rejects an appeal to California's policy of giving in-state
college tuition to state high school graduates who are in the country illegally.
The action leaves in place laws in 11 other states that permit illegal
immigrants to obtain in-state tuition.
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
9:12 AM PDT, June 6, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected 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 justices turned down an appeal from lawyers for a
conservative immigration-law group that contended "preferential treatment" for
illegal immigrants violated federal immigration law. 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 c on the
basis of residence within a state."
But last year, in the first ruling of
its kind, the California Supreme Court said the state's policy did not conflict
with federal law because the tuition benefit turned on a student's high school
graduation, not his or her residency. In the 2001 law, the state said it would
give in-state tuition to a qualified student who attended a high school in
California for three years and graduated.
Under this interpretation, a
student from Oregon who graduates from a high school in California could obtain
in-state tuition in the University of California system. In defense of its law,
California education officials said that many of those who took advantage of its
in-state tuition policy were U.S. citizens who hailed from other
states.
Overall, the state said about 41,000 students last year took
advantage of this special tuition rule, but the vast majority of those were
students at a community college. In 2009, the 10-campus UC system said 2,019
students paid in-state tuition under the terms of the state law. Of these, about
600 were believed to be illegal immigrants.
The court's action turning
down the appeal is not an official ruling, but it leaves in place laws in 11
other states that permit illegal immigrants to obtain in-state tuition. They are
Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas,
Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Another 12 states have explicitly refused
to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. For its part, the federal
government -- through the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations -- has taken
no steps to enforce the federal provision.
Citing this confusion over the
meaning of federal law, the Washington-based Immigration Reform Law Institute
had appealed the California case to the Supreme Court. Kris W. Kobach, a Kansas
lawyer and counsel for the group, said the federal law "will become a dead
letter in any state where the legislature is willing to play semantic games to
defeat the objectives of Congress."
But the justices refused to hear his
appeal in the case of Martinez vs. Board of Regents of the University of
California.
david.savage@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times