Back in 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act, which stated that if a state's colleges and universities were to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, they had to do the same for any U.S. citizen, regardless of their home state.
However, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, 24 states and Washington, D.C. provide in-state tuition to the state's undocumented students, reports NewsNation. States have been able to get around this rule by creating a clause that allows for anyone who's completed three years of high school in the state to get access to in-state tuition.
Nebraska, specifically, treated illegal aliens as qualified for in-state tuition if they have proof of residing in the state for 180 days with the intent to stay.
According to The College Fix, prompted by a lawsuit by the Department of Justice, Nebraska attorney general entered into a consent decree which a federal judge upheld, despite opposition from a Democrat state senator and two higher education non-profits.
Ira Mehlman is the media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He says that most middle class families across the nation cannot afford the prices at private institutions and thus, in order to get a higher education, they must send their children to state universities.
“These are seats at these state universities that are highly valued, that could be filled by American students who also need the education,” Mehlman says.
Texas has also reached a similar deal with the Trump administration, and Oklahoma did the same last summer.
However, not every state’s ruling is the same on the issue, with a federal judge in Minnesota tossing the challenge based on the three years of high school being enough to qualify for the exemption.
Mehlman says that due to the lower courts ruling differently, there's a possibility that this ends up in the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The courts do look at intent, and the intent was to bar states from offering tuition benefits to illegal aliens that they were not prepared to offer to any other U.S. citizen,” Mehlman says.
