Fewer ‘dreamers’ enroll in college

Enrollment has dropped 40 percent among Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients at the Maricopa Community Colleges after an Arizona Supreme Court ruling this year made them ineligible for in-state tuition.

The drop is much larger than average fluctuations in the DACA student population, the colleges confirmed. Numbers from previous years were not immediately available.

The bulk of DACA recipients who attend highereducation institutions in Arizona go to community colleges.

The plummeting student count confirms what DA-

CA recipients, commonly referred to as “dreamers,” and their advocates warned would happen in the aftermath of the court’s ruling: A significant number of DACA students would leave college.

Karina Ruiz, the president of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, said the drop isn’t surprising — she feared it may actually be even higher.

“It is a real crisis,” she said. Many DACA recipients have unexpectedly found themselves at the end of their educational road because the outof-state rates are simply unaffordable, she said. Since DACA recipients have work permits, they may be the only ones in their families legally able to work, and the increased tuition adds more financial stress, she said.

“They’re hopeless. They’re really hopeless,” she said.

But at Arizona State University, the number of DACA students actually increased since the April ruling, though at a slower pace than in previous years.

DACA, enacted via executive order by then-President Barack Obama in 2012, allows young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children to apply for temporary protection from deportation and access work permits.

On Sept. 16, 2017, Maricopa Community Colleges had 2,078 lawfully present students, which primarily consists of DACA recipients.

At the same time this year, the colleges had 1,255 lawfully present students, a drop of 39.6 percent.

Numbers for previous years were not immediately available, though the colleges confirmed the drop was largely the result of the tuition ruling.

At ASU, the number of DACA students increased from 259 in fall 2017 to 274 this year, an increase of nearly 6 percent. But previously, the number increased from 188 to 259 from 2016 to 2017, a 38 percent increase.

In a statement, ASU said the school remains committed to DACA students, who are “among the most resilient students in the higher education system.”

“A recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court did not change DACA students’ near universal commitment to achieving their goals, nor did it cause Arizona State University to alter its steadfast commitment to making higher education a reality for all Arizona high school graduates, including those who have DACA status,” ASU said.

The Maricopa County Community College District did not respond to a request for comment on the enrollment decrease.

Maricopa Community Colleges had allowed DACA recipients to pay in-state rates, saying their work permits served as evidence of legal status. But the state, through then-Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, sued the colleges over that in 2013.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sided with the colleges, then the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled against them. The case ended up before the Arizona Supreme Court, which agreed with the appellate ruling.

The high court said DACA recipients weren’t entitled to in-state tuition because they aren’t lawfully present in the country for the purposes of public benefits under federal law. A 2006 ballot measure said people needed to have lawful immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition.

The Maricopa County Community College District decided not to appeal the April ruling.

The ruling effectively tripled tuition costs for students at Maricopa Community Colleges, where in-state students pay $85 per credit, while non-residents pay $327 per credit.

At Arizona’s public universities, DACA recipients can qualify for a tuition at 150 percent of in-state rates if they graduated from an Arizona high school that they attended for at least three years. Many DACA recipients meet these requirements, though not all.

That intermediate rate is much lower than out-of-state tuition. In-state students at ASU pay nearly $10,000 in tuition annually. The 150 percent rate is about $15,000, and the out-of-state rate is nearly $28,000.

Ruiz said it was kind of a surprise to see ASU’s number increase, given the higher cost of university tuition. But she pointed to the 150 percent tuition rate and scholarships from private funders like TheDream.US as reasons the number of DACA recipients at ASU could have increased.

In August, several students told

that they had cobbled together funds or switched to private colleges to stay in school.

Two private universities, Grand Canyon University and Benedictine University, became partner schools for students who receive scholarships from TheDream.US, offering to cover the gap between the scholarship’s coverage and their higher tuition rates.