Dreaming About College

Kevin Carey's Crying Wolf About Immigration clarifies some key points about immigrant youth, including the fact that most children of immigrants are not undocumented. Yet as the debate on immigration reform rages on, there are gnawing questions about how we will educate the nearly 5 million children of undocumented immigrants who are currently living in the United States.

According to a recent Pew Hispanic Center report, an estimated two-thirds of children of undocumented immigrants are U.S. citizens by birth (leading to a large number of "mixed status" families). That leaves more than 1.5 million children who are themselves undocumented, although many of these youth have been in the U.S. for as long as they can remember and have attended U.S. public schools since kindergarten. This is possible, of course, because the United States provides free public elementary and secondary education to all children, regardless of immigrant status.

College, however, is another matter.

Under federal law, undocumented students are not eligible for in-state tuition rates (unless all other U.S. citizens are also made eligible for the same rate). The added fact that undocumented students cannot qualify for financial aid is the dealbreaker for many of these students. States are now grappling with the issue, and many have introduced legislation to change residency requirements (California already offers resident tuition). Meanwhile, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act would provide qualified undocumented students conditional legal status to attend college and would also give states the power to determine residency policies for tuition purposes. Read the full text of the Dream Act as introduced in 2005 (type "S.2075" into search).

The legislation is now sitting in committee as the nation debates the broader issue of immigration reform. Meanwhile, barely half of undocumented students are attending or have attended college, compared to nearly three-quarters of documented immigrant and native-born students. As it is likely that these students will remain in the United States, we must consider if the cost of making college more accessible and affordable to them is more or less than doing nothing.