Thread: Undocumented immigrants fight to sue Georgia Board of Regents in high court

Posted: October 16, 2015 - 3:18pm | Updated: October 16, 2015 - 3:22pm

By Walter C. Jones | Morris News Service

An attorney for 39 undocumented immigrants told the Georgia Supreme Court Friday that there must be a way for them to challenge a rule of the Board of Regents that requires them to pay out-of-state tuition.

The board that oversees the state’s public colleges and universities enacted a rule in 2010 requiring nonresident rates of nearly four times higher for students who are not “lawfully present” in the United States.

But in 2012, the Obama administration has determined that undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children could remain for at least two years, a decision the students argue means they are indeed lawfully present.

They’re not able to make their case in court because a superior court judge and the Court of Appeals have both ruled that the board can’t be sued.

Friday, their appeal came before the Supreme Court which is trying to decide if the Board of Regents can be sued or not.

Lawyers for the Attorney General’s Office say the state constitution prohibits any lawsuits against the state unless the legislature has specifically allowed it, and they say nothing explicitly authorizes suing the board.

Charles Kuck, the attorney representing the students, said the state constitution also guarantees the right to seek redress of grievances.

“The right to grievances cannot be ignored,” he said.

Justice David Nahmias countered that courts have interpreted that clause to mean the right to petition the legislative and executive branches of government.

“If that were true, sovereign immunity would never apply,” he said.

Sovereign immunity is the legal term for the government’s protection against lawsuits.

Kuck argued that would be unfair.

“What that means for my plaintiffs, my clients, my kids, it deprives them of an education in the state they consider their home,” he said.

State Solicitor General Russ Willard, arguing for the Board of Regents, said the constitution gave the board special protections from legislative interference in the 1940s to prevent political considerations from jeopardizing accreditation. If the Supreme Court ruled that the students can sue over the rule, then it runs the risk of destroying that protection.

“There may be instances where there is no judicial remedy,” he said.

If the justices decide the students can’t sue the board, that doesn’t prevent them from suing the members of the board individually or from filing another court case alleging they aren’t following the law.

On the other hand, if the justices decide the students are allowed to sue the board, that would put the case back in the Fulton County Superior Court where they would have to convince a judge on the issue of “lawful presence.”

Either way, no decision is expected for about three months.

http://savannahnow.com/news/2015-10-...nts-high-court

How can these people even have "standing" to sue in our courts when they aren't even supposed to be in the country??!! The only thing they're entitled to under US law is swift hearing and a speedy deportation. That's it. That's all they're entitled to under US law.

The ACLU and the illegals have brought these suits in Missouri also. The ACLU, filling it's pockets on illegal aliens "plight". JMO

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SUE, SEEKING LOWER TUITION IN MISSOURI
avid Duprey/AP

by CAROLINE MAY15 Oct 20155,031

Three illegal immigrants, shielded from deportation by President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, are suing three Missouri colleges, charging the schools’ tuition is too high.

The Missouri branch of the American Civil Liberties Union filed three separate suits on behalf of the unnamed illegal immigrant students against the University of Missouri, St. Louis Community College and the Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City this week calling for the students to receive in-state tuition rates.

“It is shameful to treat DACA students like outcasts, when they have lived, worked and gone to schools in this country since they were children,” Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement.

At issue is the preamble to an education appropriations bill Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed this year.
The preamble to the legislation states:

[T]hat no funds shall be expended at public institutions of higher education that offer a tuition rate to any student with an unlawful immigration status in the United States that is less than the tuition rate charged to international students, and further provided that no scholarship funds shall be expended on behalf of students with an unlawful immigration status in the United States.

The ACLU argues that the students are being charged higher tuition rates due to the preamble, however, the group claims, the preamble is not enforceable, non-binding, and should not apply to their illegal immigrant clients.

“It is a well-established rule of statutory interpretation that preambles to statutes do not create substantive law,” the lawsuits state. “When statutes are ambiguous, preambles can be used to interpret statutory enactments but, on their own, preambles are not binding statutory authority. ”

Regardless of the interpretation, the ACLU says public colleges and universities should be welcoming to those willing to work hard.

“Our Missouri public institutions of higher learning exist to open the doors of opportunity to hard-working students striving to get ahead. Now, there are extreme financial burdens being put on the backs of students already struggling to achieve their goals of higher education,” Jeffrey A. Mittman, the group’s executive director, added. “To punish students who had no say in how they arrived in this country is not only mean-spirited, it is against the law.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...tion-missouri/

“It is shameful to treat DACA students like outcasts, when they have lived, worked and gone to schools in this country since they were children,” Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement."

So Because they have already been a drain on us they should continue to be?