PHOENIX — Arizona is one of 21 states being sued by the Department of Justice over a state law that allows Dreamers to qualify for in-state tuition at public universities.
The DOJ argues it gives some students without legal status a benefit that is not available to all U.S. citizen, but the Arizona Attorney General is vowing to defend the voter-approved law.
For Luis Acosta, the latest fight over college tuition feels familiar.
“It genuinely makes me angry and tired,” Acosta, Phoenix, said.
Now a DACA recipient, Acosta came to Phoenix when he was three and graduated from high school in Arizona. But in 2009, before the DACA program was announced, he says immigration status became a barrier to paying for college.
“I did have a scholarship. However, the scholarship required that I provide a social security number, which I did not have,” Acosta said. “The in-state tuition that exists today for Dreamers, DACA recipients, people who don't have status, did not exist back then.”
Acosta left Arizona to earn his degree. Today, students have an option he didn’t.
Arizona voters passed Prop 308 in 2022, allowing qualifying students, regardless of immigration status, to pay in-state tuition.
This week the Justice Department sued to challenge it.
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Brett Shumate, Assistant Attorney General, said. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
The DOJ’s case centers on a federal law that restricts certain college benefits based on residency.
Attorney General Kris Mayes vows to defend Prop 308, saying it qualifies students for in-state tuition because they attended and graduated from an Arizona high school, not because of their residency.
“I feel we're protected. I had a conversation with our Attorney General, and she feels that her opinion is going to protect us. So it will go to court, and we're hopeful that they will lose,” Senator Catherine Miranda, (D) District 11, said.
ABC15 reached out to the state director for Latinos United For Conservative Action, who declined to comment at the moment, and we are waiting for a response from Latinos for Trump.
For now, the lawsuit does not change students’ eligibility.
Aliento, an Arizona nonprofit that works with families with mixed immigration status, is encouraging DACA recipients to keep pursuing higher education.
“For Arizona Dreamers, it is important for you to know that you belong in higher education and you have the support of Arizona voters and Aliento,” Reyna Montoya, Aliento CEO, told ABC15.
Senator Miranda is also urging Dreamers to stick to their plans.
“My message to our Dreamers, is continue to work, continue to get educated,” Sen. Miranda said. “They don't deserve to continue to have to look over their shoulders and live in fear, and this is just a threat.”
Acosta says that message matters.
“The biggest fear… some kids will hear about this and will automatically assume that, ‘Hey, I can't go to college anymore,’ and they’re just going to give up,” Acosta said.
“That’s going to be so detrimental to our community here in the state of Arizona, because these are kids with bright futures that could be giving back to us in our communities.”
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