Posted: Friday, March 27, 2015 9:00 am

Lindsey Conway

The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected an appeal for in-state tuition by undocumented students brought to the United States as children on March 19, upholding the Fulton County Superior Court’s decision from June.

“I was disheartened at first, but we will learn from this experience,” said Alejandro Galeana-Salinas, an undocumented student.

Many people thought the Civil Rights Movement spanned just a few years, but it actually grew over a much longer period of time. He said this rejection is just a part of the long process of their movement.

The rejection of in-state tuition was made on the grounds of sovereign immunity for the Board of Regents, a legal doctrine giving any department or agency of the state exemption from any civil or criminal prosecution.

Under President Barack Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, these students are legally residing in the United States and can lawfully attend public colleges and universities.

But Georgia’s in-state tuition policies only require students to live here legally, and students under DACA are still not receiving the extra funds.

“We are not surprised by the court of appeals decision, except as it relates to the narrowness of its decision related to sovereign immunity,” said Charles Kuck, attorney for the 39 plaintiffs. “We will continue our appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court where we believe this fight would always end up.”

Support for in-state tuition for undocumented students is also fighting the end of Senate Bill 44 this year.

The bill would outline in-state tuition for undocumented students, and although it received a hearing, it did not pass through the Senate Higher Education Committee by March 13, the deadline for bills to cross from one chamber to the other and still be able to pass this year.

Senator Fran Millar had told the our group to more clearly outline what students would and wouldn’t get tuition wise which was really nice of him to do since it did not have to, said Salinas. However, because of the lawsuit occurring at the same time, he decided not to vote on the bill.

“The fight for instate tuition is not over,” Kuck said. “And we will not rest until tuition equity is the law in Georgia."

http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/u...6eeb83667.html