Should students in DACA program pay in-state tuition?

When a Fulton County judge held recently that certain illegal immigrant students were eligible for in-state tuition at Georgia state universities, she reopened a debate that many assumed had been settled by the Legislature: Whether those in the country unlawfully, even if they grew up here, had to pay more expensive, out-of-state tuition.

Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan said the students who brought the suit “are Georgia taxpayers, workers, and graduates of Georgia public high schools pursuing an affordable option for higher education.”

The 10 plaintiffs are recognized under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program, which grants work permits and temporary deportation deferrals to illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

A 2008 state law says noncitizens cannot pay in-state rates unless they are “legally in the state,” and the university Board of Regents’ tuition policy reflects that law. But the plaintiffs contended that under DACA, they are, indeed, legally in the state.

State Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, has said he would introduce legislation in the General Assembly to clarify the law to say only those with “legal status” in the U.S. could qualify for in-state tuition.

“If a person from Chattanooga, Tenn., or Auburn, Ala., or Tallahassee, Fla., has to pay outof-state tuition, then certainly I think someone who has got no legal status to be in the country should have to pay out-of-state tuition,” McKoon told the AJC in December.

The Board of Regents has appealed Tusan’s decision, asking the judge to keep her ruling on hold while the Georgia Court of Appeals considers the case.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck said, “By denying these students the right to pay what the courts say they are legally entitled to, the Board of Regents has created remarkable hardship on students who only want to learn and achieve for our state.”

Should DACA young people in Georgia qualify for in-state