Calif. Court Says In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens Violates Constitution
The 3rd District Court of Appeals in Sacramento has ruled that a lawsuit filed by out-of-state students challenging a California law granting in-state tuition to illegal aliens can move forward. The three judge panel went even further by stating that California's law was unconstitutional because it violates federal law. The panel also said that the law violates the equal protection clause and immunity clause of the constitution.
Instead of forcing illegal aliens to pay out-of state tuition, the court ruled that the state must allow 80,000 out-of-state students to pay in-state tuition and reimburse any out-of-state tuition costs already paid.
California (as well as nine other states) are currently violating the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which allows a state to provide subsidized, lower in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens but only if the state also provides the same low rate to U.S. citizens who are residents of other states. You might remember that the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear a case brought by out-of-state students attending Kansas universities.
Michael Hethmon, general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said, "In their ruling, the judges indicated that federal law pre-empts not only California's in-state tuition law, but all such laws across the country."