Thread: Tests illegals can't pass

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Tests illegals can't pass

Sunday, August 28, 2005

By MIGUEL PEREZ and ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITERS



Jaime Juarez believes he should be at Rutgers University, studying to become an engineer. Instead, the 18-year-old Mexican is waiting tables at an Italian restaurant in Piscataway.

Rutgers had already accepted Juarez into its new freshman class by the time he graduated with high marks from New Brunswick High School on June 23. But even though he's lived in the city six years, Juarez learned from his guidance counselor that because he's an illegal immigrant, Rutgers would charge him out-of-state tuition.

That's more than double the in-state rate, an annual difference of more than $7,000, and it doesn't include fees, books or other expenses.

"In high school, I studied very hard because I want to make something of myself," says Juarez, who has been forced to put his dreams on hold.

All over New Jersey, as in 40 other states, thousands of illegal students share Juarez's plight. They believe they are shut out of public universities and community colleges because they will have to pay two and three times the tuition charged legal residents of New Jersey.

Their gloom is well-founded. The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act forbade states from granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants based on residency because those students would be paying less than out-of-state U.S. citizens.

Yet a Record survey of the state's four-year public schools and of selected North Jersey community colleges found that some colleges are allowing undocumented students to pay the lower in-state tuition, apparently violating federal law.

New Jersey's higher-education system offers no statewide guidelines to deal with illegal immigrants - what tuition to charge or even whether to admit them - leaving every college to set its own standard, several college spokesmen complained in interviews. The result, as The Record found, is a crazy quilt of policies:


Rutgers, Kean University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey City University and Montclair State University accept illegal students but charge out-of-state tuition.


Richard Stockton College allows in-state tuition if students can show they are applying for legal residency.


Ramapo College and Passaic Community College charge in-state rates based on where the illegal students attended high school.


The College of New Jersey, Rowan University and Hudson County Community College allow at least some illegal students to pay in-state tuition, based on their home addresses.


William Paterson University and the County College of Morris reject all applications from undocumented students. "Homeland Security requires that everyone be acknowledged," says WPU spokesman Jonathan McCoy. "In these days of terrorism ... we are able to document everyone who comes through our doors."

The more lenient policies appear to be the result of confusion about the federal law's requirements, rather than efforts to sidestep them. Nevertheless, they create general bewilderment for undocumented students.

Partha Banerjee, executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, says the few four-year colleges that grant in-state tuition to illegal students - three of 10 - probably "just don't know or they are just not following" the federal rules. He says he's concerned that "once they find out this is something they cannot do, then perhaps they will stop doing it," and that would further harm the immigrant students.

"They are children who have grown up in this country," Banerjee says. "They don't relate to any other country. And then suddenly they are told they don't belong."

Denied access to aid

Even undocumented students who win admission to the nation's elite schools, where residency is not an issue, can be left out in the cold. Many are poor and normally would qualify for scholarships or financial aid, but the 1996 law says such assistance can be granted only to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

But to those who champion strict immigration rules, aiding undocumented students amounts to rewarding lawbreakers.

"People who are here illegally should not benefit on the backs of taxpayers," says Assemblyman Michael Carroll, R-Morristown. "Far from being welcomed with a discount, [they] should be evicted immediately."

New Jersey is home to an illegal population that demographic studies estimate at 350,000 (Pew Hispanic Center) to 500,000 (Seton Hall University's Institute on Work). That's 4 percent to 5 percent of the state total.

And while the population's shadowy nature makes it impossible to count anything with certainty, Banerjee's organization estimates some 1,200 undocumented high school graduates might apply to public colleges each year if they could pay in-state tuition.

State officials worry that an influx of students suddenly able to afford college might strain a system already filled to capacity. For the class entering last fall, the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education says, its four-year public schools received 88,467 applications but enrolled only 15,912 freshmen.

"We have huge capacity needs; we are short of space," says Jean Oswald, the commission's executive director. "If thousands more of these undocumented students are able to go to college because they can afford it, it absolutely will knock more of the legal people out."

Drawing a line

In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court gave illegal immigrants the right to attend public schools through 12th grade. The court held that children should not be penalized for their parents' decision to enter the United States illegally.

But 14 years later, the immigration reform act drew the line at a high school diploma. It barred illegal immigrants from receiving post-secondary benefits that were based on in-state residency.

To get around this restriction, nine states have granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrants based on graduation from high schools in those states, rather than home addresses.

Of the six states with the largest immigrant populations, all but Florida and New Jersey have laws guaranteeing in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Both of those states have bills pending in their legislatures, New Jersey's since 2003. The In-State Tuition Act, which would grant the lower rates to graduates of New Jersey high schools, rather than students with New Jersey addresses, has never made it out of the Senate education committee.

Apart from where they live, the toll on the students of how they live - as foreign lawbreakers - is often lost in the debate on in-state tuition.

One 22-year-old Mexican woman who had to interrupt her college studies because of the expense says she knows her parents had only good intentions when they brought her over the border illegally, at age 8. But her situation today rankles her.

"For a long time, I blamed my parents, for bringing me here the way they did," says the former student, who lives in Bergen County but did not want her identity disclosed. "It wasn't my choice. They felt awful, they said they never thought it would get this bad."

Jaime Juarez, too, is well aware that his family's lack of documentation is holding him back.

"I had a good GPA and was accepted at several colleges and universities," Juarez says. "But I can't afford to pay out-of-state tuition, and I can't even apply for grants or scholarships because immediately they ask you for a Social Security number, your family's financial records and tax information."

For Juarez, the ultimate insult came when he applied to Middlesex County College.

"They told me that since I graduated in the top 20 percent of my class, they could give me a full scholarship - but only if I was legal.

"I told them, 'Gracias,' " Juarez adds sarcastically.

Room for merit?

Immigration advocates insist that opportunities for achieving students, legal and illegal alike, should be based on merit.

But others argue it is wrong to secure a college slot for an illegal immigrant, particularly at the expense of a legal resident.

"A college might admit the undocumented student on merit," Oswald says, "but the bottom line is that some residents will say, 'Why should my daughter compete for a college spot against someone who is illegal?' "

Arguably, the in-state tuition laws already on the books do only so much for undocumented immigrants. Even if they earn degrees, illegal students are prohibited from working. This limitation is one focus of a federal bill known as the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act would legalize immigrant students who have lived in the United States at least five years and can demonstrate good moral character. Students who meet those requirements would be eligible for in-state tuition and federal financial aid.

Advocates say that if nothing is done to make college more affordable, undocumented students will feel increasingly alienated from the larger society.

"Those who create obstacles for immigrant students will find that in the end they will have a bigger problem," says Rafael Fraguela, the principal at The Learning Center in Passaic and a former vice principal of Passaic High. "Instead of spending more money on education, they will have to spend more money on prisons and on fighting gang violence.

"If we don't give all students the opportunity to succeed," he says, "they will look for other alternatives and then society as a whole will be endangered."

Juarez finds it particularly frustrating that some classmates who had lackluster high school records and showed little interest in higher education are now enrolled in college, while he and other undocumented students who worked hard to realize the American dream are being told they now can't afford it.

"If they were to finally pass that state law, perhaps I could afford to go to college," Juarez says. "And if they pass the federal law, perhaps I could even become a citizen and get a grant to study."

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com and perez@northjersey.com

* * *
CONFUSING CHOICES FOR UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS

With no statewide standards to guide them, New Jersey's public colleges and universities present a confusing array of admission and tuition requirements to undocumented students. These were the combined tuition and mandatory fees charged for full-time undergraduates in the 2004-05 academic year.

In state Out of state

WILL NOT ADMIT ILLEGAL STUDENTS

William Paterson University $7,952 $12,690

County College of Morris $2,835 $ 7,245


ADMITS ILLEGAL STUDENTS; CHARGES OUT-OF-STATE TUITION

Rutgers University $8,564 $15,599

New Jersey Institute of Technology $9,180 $14,978

New Jersey City University $6,550 $11,230

Kean University $7,151 $9,656

Montclair State University $6,929 $10,597

Bergen Community College $2,982 $5,634*

(*out-of-county rate)


ADMITS; CHARGES IN-STATE RATE BASED ON HOME ADDRESS

The College of New Jersey $8,978 $13,919

Rowan University $7,970 $13,798

Hudson Community College $2,993 $7,313


ADMITS; CHARGES IN-STATE RATE BASED ON HIGH SCHOOL

Ramapo College of New Jersey $8,081 $12,633

Passaic Community College $2,595 $4,665


ADMITS; IN-STATE RATE WITH PROOF OF APPLICATION FOR RESIDENCY

Richard Stockton College of N.J. $7,203 $10,368

Source: New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities; New Jersey Commission on Higher Education

* * *
THE ARGUMENTS

Illegal immigrant children may attend public schools straight through high school graduation. But when college looms, no matter how outstanding their grades or how long they have lived in New Jersey, they generally must pay the higher tuition charged to out-of-state or foreign students.

A bill pending in the Legislature would allow many illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.


SUPPORTERS SAY:


Limiting access to a college education hurts the larger society in at least two important ways. It fails to exploit the talents of young people who are becoming a sizable portion of that society. It also expands an undereducated workforce that is increasingly falling behind those of other countries.


Charging higher tuition penalizes the children of undocumented immigrants who had no influence over their parents' decisions to stay in the United States illegally.


The dread that an influx of illegal immigrants will swamp colleges if they can pay lower tuition is exaggerated: Nationwide, only 5 percent to 10 percent of undocumented students who graduate from high school go on to college, compared with about 75 percent of their classmates, according to the National Immigration Law Center, a Los Angeles think tank.


OPPONENTS SAY:


Citizens and permanent legal residents should not have to compete with illegals for precious college slots in New Jersey's already-full public colleges and universities.


Tight college budgets would be further strained by undocumented students paying lower in-state tuition.


Such special benefits would undermine U.S. immigration laws.

* * *
"People who are here illegally should not benefit on the backs of taxpayers. Far from being welcomed with a discount, [they] should be evicted immediately." - Assemblyman Michael Carroll, R-Morristown

"Those who create obstacles for immigrant students will find ... they will have to spend more money on prisons and on fighting gang violence." - Rafael Fraguela, principal at The Learning Center in Passaic and a former assemblyman

* * *
Tuition for illegals: Yea or nay?

New Jersey voters are split on whether undocumented students should pay the same rates for college as legal residents of New Jersey.

Of 810 likely voters recently polled by the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, 46 percent said they would allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, 45 percent said they opposed the idea and the remaining 9 percent were unsure or refused to answer.

Mr. Juarez, if our politicians took our nations best interests to heart and enforced our laws in the same way that the home country that you come from does theirs you would not be here at all.

For Juarez, the ultimate insult came when he applied to Middlesex County College.

"They told me that since I graduated in the top 20 percent of my class, they could give me a full scholarship - but only if I was legal.

"I told them, 'Gracias,' " Juarez adds sarcastically.

Just another gratefull illegal up here trying to take a scholarship away from an American who wouldn't use it.

We're giving this guy and millions illegal children FREE public education and he has the nerve to complain that he has to pay out of state tuition for college. I'd like to deport him and his parents. Maybe they would be more appreciative of what the US taxpayers have given him.