Thread: Yolo judge rejects suit over immigrant tuition

Monday October 16, 2006

Yolo judge rejects suit over immigrant tuition


By Sharon Stello/Enterprise staff writer

Published Oct 12, 2006 - 14:24:37 CDT.

A Yolo County judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging a law that allows illegal immigrants who graduate from California high schools to pay in-state tuition — the same rate break given to California citizens — at the state’s public colleges and universities.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in December by out-of-state students, claimed this practice was discriminatory and violated federal law. The students argued that California’s public colleges shouldn’t charge undocumented immigrants a lower rate than U.S. citizens, even if those citizens live in another state.

Of 42 plaintiffs, two are children of a former San Diego congressman. Nine UC Davis students comprised the largest plaintiff group from one campus.

Judge Thomas Warriner of Yolo County Superior Court issued an order Oct. 4 concluding that the lawsuit’s claims lacked legal merit.

Ethan Schulman, an attorney representing the University of California in the case, was pleased with the outcome.


“The state law challenged in this lawsuit gave undocumented students who have excelled in our high schools the opportunity to get an affordable college education,” Schulman said in a statement. “The court’s ruling rejects every one of the plaintiffs’ claims and finds that there is no violation of federal law or the Constitution.”

Redwood City attorney Tony Abdollahi, on the legal team representing the plaintiffs, said they likely will file an appeal.

“We’re obviously disappointed with the court’s ruling,” Abdollahi said.

He said out-of-state students shouldn’t be punished with higher tuition because their “only crime was being born or residing in another state,” Abdollahi said.

The state law at issue went into effect in 2002; it exempts certain undocumented immigrants from paying nonresident tuition at California’s public colleges and universities. They must attend a California high school for at least three years, graduate from a California high school and sign an affidavit declaring that they will seek to become legal residents as soon as it’s feasible.



Schulman explained that the law was intended to benefit, among others, undocumented immigrants whose immigration status prevents them from establishing legal residency in California.

Schulman said the lawsuit was the second against public colleges and universities on the issue, and likely will become “part of a larger trend as the national debate over immigration spills over into the courtroom.”

At least nine other states have enacted legislation similar to the California law. A lawsuit filed in federal court in Kansas, challenging that state’s law, was dismissed but is being appealed.

In the California case, plaintiffs argued that the state law was pre-empted by two federal laws, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

The immigration law, Abdollahi explained, requires any benefits offered to illegal immigrants to also be given to U.S. citizens.

However, Judge Warriner rejected the plaintiffs’ claims, as well as a series of subsidiary claims. Warriner concluded that the California law is not pre-empted by federal law because it does not regulate immigration and it operates within the federal framework.

— Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043.
http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles ... 80new2.txt

I've got a sister that used to live there in YOYO county. Yep, that's what we called it! It's just outside of Sacra-tomato. I sure am glad I moved outta there!