In-State Tuition For Undocumented Immigrants In North Carolina Not Legal, Says State Attorney General

EFE reported last week that North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has opined that young undocumented immigrants who have won relief from deportation and work authorization under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program aren’t eligible for in-state tuition rates at public universities and colleges. The news comes after state representative Marcus Brandon -- who last summer introduced a bill which would have extended the benefit to anyone who had graduated from a North Carolina high school and lived in the state for at least two years -- wrote to Cooper requesting an opinion.

Toward the beginning of January, a group of largely student activists had staged what they called the “One State, One Rate” campaign to rally support for the idea and push the attorney general to declare his support. But in a letter responding to Brandon’s request, Cooper sided with the University of North Carolina and community college systems in saying that federal law prohibited it, provoking angry reactions from student activists who accused him of “throw[ing] immigrant students under the bus.”

Cooper’s letter cited a federal law which denies those not lawfully in the US the right to “any post-secondary educational benefits unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit." It went on, “Because eligibility for in-state tuition in North Carolina is determined based on residency in North Carolina, federal law prohibits the undocumented individuals as described above from being eligible for the benefit of in-state tuition.” Although those students who had benefited from DACA were “lawfully present” in the United States, Cooper added, they were not eligible by federal law to receive in-state tuition “unless a specific state statute provides otherwise.” North Carolina law bans the benefit for those not lawfully present, and makes no specific exception for DACA recipients, he concluded, making “Dreamers” ineligible.

Sixteen states currently allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.