College Offers In-State Fees to Undocumented Immigrants

Walking past Fullerton College Cadena Transfer Center, on the way to the cafeteria, it is easy to miss the sticker placed in the window. The simple design consists of a green ribbon with the words "A.B. 540 Safe Zone," placed above it.

Cadena Center Director Lily Espinoza explains that the sticker is a symbol of the center's mission of diversity, an attempt to create a sense of understanding and dialogue for the marginalized groups on campus.

Assembly Bill 540, a product of California's legislature, was passed in 2001. The law allows for undocumented students, as well as out-of-state students, who have attended a California high school for three or more years and received a diploma or equivalent, to pay in-state tuition fees at publicly funded colleges and universities.

"A.B. 540 allows those students, who may not have documentation,, to take advantage of the services available to all the other residents of the state of California," Espinoza said.

The law stipulates that undocumented students must agree to apply for citizenship when able to do so.

According to a press release issued by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the bill was recently challenged in California's Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lawyers representing out-of-state U.S. residents challenged the law's validity, on the grounds that a conflict exists between the bill and U.S. law.

"Under federal law," said Garrett Roe, staff attorney for the Immigration and Reform Law Institute.

"Illegal aliens are not allowed to get in-state tuition, unless every other U.S. citizen also gets in-state tuition as well, whether or not they're residents of the state."

Nicholas Espirtitu, staff attorney for MALDEF, argues that such a conflict does not exist. "A.B. 540 was written specifically to comply with federal law," Espirtitu said. "Federal law allows for undocumented students to pay state tuition, as long as certain requirements are met. A.B. 540 was written specifically to comply with those requirements."

According to MALDEF's press release, A.B. 540 will remain in effect, pending a likely appeal to the California State Supreme Court. Latino Faculty Staff Association President for the North Orange County Community College District Adela Lopez, believes repealing the law would have an overall negative impact on the state.

"If these students aren't allowed to pursue their education and fulfill their potential, the state is who's going to suffer," Lopez said. "Many of them [undocumented students] have the skills and the capacities and the aptitudes to do things we need in the 21st century for a technological and a well educated society." Roe disagrees with this perspective.

"Under federal law, illegal aliens are prohibited from working in the U.S., so giving them in-state tuition to go to college doesn't benefit the state of California because they won't be able to work anyway when they graduate," Roe said. Lopez, who also teaches Chicano Studies at FC, added that repealing the law would place undo hardship on students who have lived in this state their entire lives.

According to Admissions and Records Administrative Assistant Ericka Adakai, from fall 2007 through summer 2008, 1,229 FC students utilized A.B. 540. Figures indicating how many of these students are undocumented were not immediately available. However, supporters of the bill are quick to point out that undocumented Latino students are not the only ones who benefit from the law. "It affects European, Russian and Asian immigrants," Espinoza said. "Orange County has the highest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam and those students are going to greatly benefit from the legislation as well."

Furthermore, Lopez explains, U.S. citizens who attended high school in California, but moved out of state, can make use of the bill as well.

According to Espirtitu, most students who still benefit from A.B. 540 at the UC level are US citizens.