Arizona is known as the state that passed the harshest anti-immigrant law in 2010. But on Thursday, a state university oversight board unanimously voted to allow some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at three public universities. Individuals affected must have been approved through the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries, which grants them temporary work authorization and deportation relief.
The Arizona Board of Regents decision comes two days after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that immigrants with work visas under the DACA program are lawfully present in the country and thus are eligible for in-state tuition at Maricopa County’s ten community colleges. The Arizona Republic reported that it costs “$84 per credit for in-state tuition, compared with $325 per credit for out-of-state tuition” at the community colleges.
Two years ago, then-State Attorney General Tom Horne filed a lawsuit against the community colleges, arguing that “the tuition policy violated a law enacted by voters in 2006 that banned public benefits to undocumented immigrants.” But on Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson ruled, “Federal law, not state law, determines who is lawfully present in the U.S. … The circumstance under which a person enters the U.S. does not determine that person’s lawful presence here.”
According to NBC News, “Arizona Board of Regents member Bill Ridenour noted the board had been discussing the issue of in-state tuition for DACA recipients for years and said he thought it was ‘past time we did something for these students.’”
As many as 23,000 DACA recipients could potentially be affected by the decision.
Jose Patino, a DACA recipient, who now teaches at Aguafria High School in Arizona is one of those people who would qualify for in-state tuition. He told ThinkProgress on Friday that he was “excited” over the in-state tuition rate. For him, he would save an average of $15,000 per year on tuition starting in the fall.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I was thinking of when I was a senior in high school and thinking, ‘what am I going to do?’ … Now, it would be so much easier to go to school. I’ll be able to go to the school I want to go to. It makes a lot of difference.”
In 2010, Arizona passed a harsh immigration law known as SB-1070, which made it legal for state and local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of suspected undocumented immigrants. Patino told ThinkProgress in another interview that he’s been pulled over by officers at least four times. But in the intervening years, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of SB 1070’s most insidious provisions by limiting local immigration enforcement, based on constitutional grounds. Yet, the “show me your papers” provision remains. Still, it’s likely that even if law enforcement aren’t cracking down on immigrants based on legal status, the culture surrounding the law still endures.