DigitalCommons@Linfield

Analyzing In-State Post-Secondary Tuition Policies for Undocumented Illegal Aliens in the United States

Jereld R. Nicholson Library

For my research question I am focused on whether or not states should offer in-state tuition policies for undocumented illegal aliens who have graduated from the public K-12 school system in the United States. This question has been hotly debated over the past few years after the culmination of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) failing to a Senate filibuster in December of 2010. What makes this topic interesting is, since there is no federal mandate for undocumented immigrants, more state legislatures are facing policy decisions that arise from the presence of long-term, noncitizen residents. An undocumented student who does not have access to in-state tuition has to pay upwards of ten thousand dollars more per year which forces students to drop out of institutions early and not get a full education. These decisions can have a lasting effect on the state’s economy, unemployment rates in each state, and, more importantly, the education of over 9.3 million undocumented illegal aliens in the United States. As of today 11 states have agreed to such policies while 18 other states have viewed similar laws and have dismissed them. For this case study I will be focusing on California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada, specifically college acceptance of undocumented students in each state, their graduation rates, retention rates, as well as unemployment rates across the state. California and Texas have both passed laws to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens, Arizona and Colorado both deny access to in-state tuition, and Nevada is a state which doesn’t provide in-state tuition but doesn’t prohibit it. Data was collected for 400 colleges (4-year public and private institutions and 2-year public institutions) through postsecondary education websites from each individual state. By comparing the data from states with different policies I hoped to find a difference in post-secondary institution attendance, incompletions, and graduation rates specifically. My findings suggest that there needs to be more time passed in states that do allow in-state tuition in order to see a significant difference compared to states without in-state tuition. There is a slightly higher percentage of undocumented students graduating on a 6-year program as well as attending 2-year public institutions.