Thread: Invaders Whine: 207 students lose residency status

Invaders Whine:

207 students lose residency status
Voter proposition requiring proof of residency for in-state tuition cost 207 students residency status last semester
by Leigh Munsil
published on Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Juan Francisco did not expect to return to ASU in the fall semester of 2007.

After Arizona voters passed Proposition 300 in November 2006, he no longer qualified for in-state tuition because he was living in the United States illegally. His tuition tripled, and there was no way for him to pay it.

Proposition 300 was a ballot initiative that denied in-state tuition and state-funded scholarships to students who could not prove their residency. Voters passed the measure by a wide margin.

Francisco, who requested his real name not be used because of potential legal consequences, was a member of the student council at Red Mountain High School in Mesa and graduated in 2006 with a 3.6 grade point average.

He was admitted to ASU for the spring 2007 semester as an in-state student and awarded merit-based scholarships.

But in fall 2007, when Prop. 300 went into effect, Francisco did not even bother to apply for in-state tuition.

"There's no way of circumventing it," he said. "There's no point."

Out of the 64,394 students who registered at ASU for the fall 2007 semester, 207 were unable to provide documentation of their legal status, according to numbers sent to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee at the end of 2007.

Francisco said the nearly $11,000 difference in tuition rates was impossible for him to afford.

"I wasn't even worried about paying for it because I wasn't going to be able to pay for it at all," Francisco said.

Just when he had resigned himself to giving up on his education, the ASU Foundation offered to pay the difference.

The ASU Foundation is a separate entity from ASU and was not available for comment on the number of undocumented students given aid.

Roberto Reveles, a former staff director for U.S. Congressman Morris Udall, D-Ariz., who is now an activist for immigrant rights, said the number of ASU students affected by Prop. 300 is much larger than reported.

"It just makes sense that students that have already invested a lifetime in Arizona be allowed to continue their higher education," Reveles said. "They're an investment we've already made, and we ought not cast them aside."

At UA, six students were unable to provide documentation, and an additional 119 who were previously classified as in-state students were not verified and are now classified as non-residents.

NAU had 20 students who were not verified Arizona residents out of their fall enrollment of 21,352.

Arizona's community colleges reported 3,504 students who were not entitled to be classified as in-state students because of their legal status. Out of the 55,360 who applied for financial aid at the community colleges, 246 were not entitled to aid because they were unable to prove their citizenship, according to the legislative committee.

State Treasurer Dean Thomas, who sponsored Prop. 300, said there was no way of knowing how many students would be ineligible for aid once the measure had passed, but said the proposition's publicity might have made the number lower.

"There was no data, no information when we were putting this forward for voters to pass — which they did overwhelmingly," Thomas said. "We had no idea the size of the problem."

Still, by denying in-state tuition to just those 207 students, he said, the University will save approximately $2 million this year.

The importance of Prop. 300, Thomas said, was that the money saved will stay with the University and go toward keeping tuition lower for the entire student body.

"You're still talking about millions of dollars saved," he said. "It's working exactly as we intended."

But Reveles said Prop. 300 was unfair to hard-working college students.

"It's an irrational policy … that does not really examine the long-term consequences of their emotional response to immigration," Reveles said.
http://www.asuwebdevil.com/issues/2008/ ... ews/703089

Denying in-state tuition to illegal immigrants is logical common sense and dollar and cents policy.


"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Way to go, Arizona! $2 million to go towards lowering the tuition for US citizens is AWESOME!!!

"It just makes sense that students that have already invested a lifetime in Arizona be allowed to continue their higher education," Reveles said. "They're an investment we've already made, and we ought not cast them aside."

Hey, Reveles, as investments go, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Besides, I don't think it's smart to invest in illegal aliens' college educations if they can't work legally here afterwards. Isn't that kinda dumb? And even if they go home and work there, how does that benefit us? Where is the profit of my investment? You are so stupid. (Gee, Reveles, I would really hate to see your personal investment portfolio.)