Tens of thousands of illegal immigrant college students are losing access to in-state tuition rates amid the efforts of the admin and its allies.
One state revoking such tuition breaks is Florida.
According to data from the State of Florida, more than 6,500 students qualified for what's known as the out-of-state tuition waiver during the 2023-2024 school year.
That waiver was revoked as of July 1, after Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill repealing the tuition cuts.
Matt Lamb is Associate Editor of The College Fix. He shared some background with AFN.
"The Trump administration is finally enforcing a 1996 law signed by Bill Clinton that forbids universities from giving favorable tuition benefits to illegal immigrants who live in the state while charging much higher rates to American citizens who live in other states."
Lamb described his as a "simple matter of justice.”
“The fact that universities are giving unfair benefits … it is a good thing the Trump administration is addressing it. As to illegal immigrant students who are not enrolling because their tuition is going to go up, or they're worried about being deported, it's their fault. Probably more likely it’s the fault of their parents, that they came here and have continued to break the law."
Lamb said that for some reason, we have this idea that the more time that has passed from an offense, the offender should somehow not be penalized.
“For example, if you've been here illegally 30 years, that somehow that should insulate you from penalties, but when in fact, in all other cases, the longer someone breaks the law … like if you go 30 years without paying your taxes or for 15 years, you embezzle money from a company, typically you get a larger punishment the longer you've been breaking the law.”
Why should immigration offenses be different?
“Illegal immigrant activists have, for years, pushed this misguided notion that if you got away with breaking the law for years, you somehow should be immune from any sort of sanctions."
Lamb noted the Department of Justice is suing Illinois for giving tuition benefits to illegal immigrants.
Out-of-state difference is significant
"Just to illustrate the problem with this, if you go to, say Illinois State University, and you live in Illinois but you're an illegal immigrant, you pay about 11,000 a year in tuition. If you live in Indiana or Wisconsin or Iowa or Missouri or one of the other bordering states, and you're a American resident, American citizen, which means you followed the law and you pay all of your taxes and everything, you pay twice the tuition rates."
On average, out-of-state tuition costs at state universities run about $17,000 more than in-state costs.
Lamb indicated it isn't hard for higher education institutions to go about this legally. However, that would require a substantial loss of profit that the institutions, so far, have been unwilling to absorb.
“So, these states that want to give tuition benefits to illegal immigrants, all they have to do to be in compliance with the law is they just have to charge out-of-state residents the same rates that they give in-state illegal immigrants."
