Tennessee bill that would let immigrant students pay in-state tuition re-filed

February 1, 2018

Kaylin Jorge

A bill that would let immigrant students who are in the country without documentation pay in-state college tuition has been re-filed in the Tennessee Legislature after failing last year.


Senator Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Representative White (R-Memphis) re-introduced the "Tuition Opportunity" bill on Thursday.
Under current law, immigrant students who are in the country without documentation are forced to pay out-of-state tuition because they are not considered legal residents. This means they would have to sometimes pay two or three times the amount of tuition as other students who graduated from Tennessee high schools.


The Tennessee Immigrant and Refuge Rights Coalition said there are about 25,000 undocumented youth who have lived in the state for most of their lives, whose parents have contributed to paying "more than $107.4 million in state and property taxes in 2014."


Attorney General Herbert Slatery previously issued an opinion that the state can't leave immigration tuition breaks up to colleges.

The campaign for immigrants to pay the same tuition as their peers started five years ago.


http://fox17.com/news/local/tennesse...ition-re-filed