Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill believe that undocumented students should pay the same amount in tuition as they do for college.
The school’s student government passed a resolution in April showing support of the state government’s undocumented student legislation. The state’s bill, which is currently in the House Committee on Education, would allow undocumented students who have graduated from a North Carolina high school to pay in-state tuition at the state’s public universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill.
Currently, undocumented students in North Carolina are allowed to enroll in North Carolina universities and community colleges, but must pay out-of-state tuition.
While the university’s student government was debating its resolution, a student organization called Campus Y – whose self-proclaimed mission is to promote pluralism through social justice – scheduled a march in favor of the in-state tuition benefits.
“This campaign advocates for the North Carolina General Assembly to pass House Bill 904, to allow students access to higher education,” the organization said in a press release. “Let’s encourage Campus Y members to attend the Student Congress meeting to encourage them to adopt a similar resolution.”
Despite the support for the state’s bill, it can’t come to fruition, as implementing the legislation is techically illegal on the federal level. According to a blogger at Young America’s Foundation, 8 U.S. Code, § 1623 prohibits people not legally in the country from receiving the same postsecondary educational benefits as legalized people are.
That hasn’t stopped 13 other states from trying to pass similar laws, however. In 2001, students paying out-of-state tuition in California unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against public schools in the state claiming that the schools were in violation of the aforementioned federal law. A resident of Missouri also filed a claim in the Kansas District Court in 2005 after being denied in-state tuition rates at a Kansas school that was allowing undocumented students to receive in-state tuition benefits.
In the 13 states that currently authorize in-state tuition to undocumented students, only those who have graduated from a high school in the state and have been residents for two to three years are eligible. Some other states also require a signed affidavit promising to seek legal immigration status before a student is deemed eligible.
