The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled against a group of immigrant students who sued to gain access to in-state college tuition on Oct. 25.
The students filed a petition in Fulton County Superior Court last April requesting the court order the Board of Regents to allow recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to pay in-state tuition at their colleges and universities.
DACA — an executive order passed during the Obama administration — grants protection from deportation and lawful presence to immigrants who came to the U.S. at a young age.
Currently, DACA recipients who want to attend college in Georgia must pay out-of-state tuition.
The University System of Georgia policy manual has two eligibility requirements for in-state tuition: the student has to live in Georgia for at least 12 months prior to starting classes, and he or she must be “lawfully present” in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security’s website says DACA recipients are considered “lawfully present,” and because of this, the students argued that they meet the requirements for in-state tuition.
“It’s important to note that the website for the Department of Homeland Security mentions that DACA recipients have lawful presence in this country,” said Raymond Partolan, an immigration paralegal at Kuck Immigration Partners, the firm that represented the students in court.
“It’s important because, essentially, the Board of Regents policy says if you can prove lawful presence in the state of Georgia, and you hold all of the other residency requirements, then you’re eligible for in-state tuition,” he added.
According to the Associated Press, the appeals court said the DHS website is not enforceable federal law and that the university system’s policies do not require it to grant DACA students in-state tuition because of their lawful presence.
“When you see the Board of Regents give tuition waivers away to students in other states to attend Georgia colleges, it’s just a slap in the face for us,” said Ivan Morales, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College and one of the plaintiffs in the case.
Morales, 23, is a DACA student recipient majoring in psychology and minoring in business administration. He immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was seven years old and has been living in Georgia ever since.
An activist for the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, Morales has been involved in the case since 2014. He hopes to take the case back to the Supreme Court for a more favorable ruling.
“I think this decision is a step backward for the state of Georgia and the country,” Morales said.
Partolan said this lawsuit is to simply convince the state to follow its own policy manual. A DACA recipient himself, Partolan said he’s hopeful that the fight will continue after this ruling.
Charles H. Kuck, managing partner at Kuck Immigration Partners, said he plans to appeal the case to the Georgia Supreme Court.
“Some” of the costs associated with illegal immigration..
*The cost of educating illegal aliens children is staggering. From K-12 it
costs taxpayers $122,000 for EACH illegal alien student.
*Now city, and state officials are appropriating millions of taxpayer dollars for legal fees to to file law suits and in defense of illegal aliens being deported.
*2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in our politics.
*30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Does not include local jails and State Prisons. At $21,000 per year expense per inmate in Federal Prison—U do the math.
*$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens, I repeat 3
MILLION a DAY to process Illegals in the Criminal justice system.
*$2.2Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as SNAP (food stamps),WIC, & free school lunches.
Democrats, MSM, every faculty member at any university in the country fighting to the death for illegal aliens? they put a warm and fuzzy name on it
“Dreamers.”Democrats have actually changed the language. It’s not illegal alien anymore its “Immigrant.” They’re not adults, they are “Kids” or “children.” and no one seem to wonder why this obsession? future voters? can you imagine the Democrats ever being this interested or motivated in issues involving citizens! There is an estimated 800,000 DACA recipients in the US. That is 800,000 jobs American Citizens don’t have or will be in competition for.
The MSM and Democrats would have us believe that all 800 thousand are not
taking jobs Americans want (we’ve heard that lie for many years now..) There not all picking strawberries they take great Jobs. Good enough jobs to buy homes put their kids through college.Why must the citizens of our country
have competition for jobs, education in their own country from foreign nationals Now Democrats and illegal alien activists admit DACA recipients have great jobs,are buying homes, paying taxes.
The GOAL, (Democrats just haven’t figured this out yet) is for the American
citizens to be employed, sending their kids to college, buying homes
It’s not the responsibility of the citizens of this country to support, educate citizens from other country’s.Deportation will save jobs and decrease the BILLIONS we spend on illegal aliens.
Where did you copy and paste this from?
It didn’t get a single fact correct, you probably should find another source.
Actually the numbers are only incorrect in that they under report the cost.
If you would like to post a source on any of the numbers that you think are worth discussion I would welcome that too. Not a single number in the first post is accurate.
Hey Tyler, are you a Russian troll? You’ve pasted that same rubbish in at least a dozen different threads… Didn’t know that the spamming had made it to KSU. Crazy!