{ "id": "R43447", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R43447", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 448664, "date": "2016-01-11", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T17:32:36.446486", "title": "Unauthorized Aliens, Higher Education, In-State Tuition, and Financial Aid: Legal Analysis", "summary": "The existence of a sizable population of \u201cDREAMers\u201d in the United States has prompted questions about unauthorized aliens\u2019 eligibility for admission to public institutions of higher education, in-state tuition, and financial aid. The term DREAMer is widely used to describe aliens who were brought to the United States as children and raised here but lack legal immigration status. As children, DREAMers are entitled to public elementary and secondary education as a result of the Supreme Court\u2019s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe. There, the Court struck down a Texas statute that prohibited the use of state funds to provide elementary and secondary education to children who were not \u201clegally admitted\u201d to the United States because the state distinguished between these children and other children without a \u201csubstantial\u201d goal, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. \nOnce DREAMers complete high school, however, they may have less access to public higher education. Plyler\u2019s holding was limited to elementary and secondary education, and the Court\u2019s focus on the young age of those whom Texas denied a \u201cbasic education\u201d has generally been taken to mean that measures denying unauthorized aliens access to higher education may be subject to less scrutiny than the Texas statute was. Thus, several states have adopted laws or practices barring the enrollment of unauthorized aliens at public institutions of higher education. In addition, Congress has enacted two statutes that restrict unauthorized aliens\u2019 eligibility for \u201cpublic benefits,\u201d a term which has generally been construed to encompass in-state tuition and financial aid. The first of these statutes, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, P.L. 104-193), bars the provision of \u201cstate and local public benefits\u201d to aliens who are \u201cnot lawfully present in the United States\u201d unless the state enacts legislation that \u201caffirmatively provides\u201d for their eligibility. The second, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA, P.L. 104-208), bars states from providing \u201cpostsecondary education benefits\u201d to aliens who are \u201cnot lawfully present\u201d based on their residence in the state unless all U.S. citizens or nationals are eligible for such benefits, regardless of their residence. \nState measures that variously deny or grant access to public higher education, in-state tuition, or financial aid have been challenged on the grounds that they violate the Equal Protection Clause, like the Texas measure at issue in Plyler. They have also been alleged to violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes that federal law is \u201cthe supreme Law of the Land\u201d and may preempt any incompatible provisions of state law. Based on the case law to date, it would appear that states do not, as a general matter, violate the Equal Protection or Supremacy Clauses by excluding unauthorized aliens from public institutions of higher education. On the other hand, access to public higher education has generally not been construed as a public benefit for purposes of PRWORA, such that it may only be provided to \u201cunlawfully present\u201d aliens if a state enacts legislation that affirmatively provides for their eligibility.\nIn-state tuition and financial aid have generally been seen as public benefits for purposes of PRWORA. However, courts have rejected the view that state statutes providing in-state tuition to unauthorized aliens are preempted unless they expressly refer to PRWORA, or to unauthorized aliens being eligible. Courts have also found that IIRIRA does not bar states from providing in-state tuition to unauthorized aliens who complete a certain number of years of high school in the state and satisfy other criteria. In one case, the court reached this conclusion because it construed IIRIRA as barring only the provision of in-state tuition based on residence in the state, not based on other factors. In another case, the court found that IIRIRA did not create a private right of action such that individuals may sue to enforce alleged violations.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R43447", "sha1": "b82c60fcb2819140db1eb8bffdf1b594b1dc7640", "filename": "files/20160111_R43447_b82c60fcb2819140db1eb8bffdf1b594b1dc7640.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R43447", "sha1": "a099640f20da964c6df67bb727dc2ec603149639", "filename": "files/20160111_R43447_a099640f20da964c6df67bb727dc2ec603149639.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 479, "name": "Postsecondary Education" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc462719/", "id": "R43447_2014Jul21", "date": "2014-07-21", "retrieved": "2014-12-05T09:57:41", "title": "Unlawfully Present Aliens, Higher Education, In-State Tuition, and Financial Aid: Legal Analysis", "summary": "This report surveys key legal issues pertaining to unlawfully present alien students' access to higher education, in-state tuition, and financial aid.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20140721_R43447_ffb21b9dd29eef9b2276a4309bc149255e5cbc8a.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20140721_R43447_ffb21b9dd29eef9b2276a4309bc149255e5cbc8a.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Educational finance", "name": "Educational finance" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Illegal aliens", "name": "Illegal aliens" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Student aid", "name": "Student aid" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc813733/", "id": "R43447_2014Mar28", "date": "2014-03-28", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Unlawfully Present Aliens, Higher Education, In-State Tuition, and Financial Aid: Legal Analysis", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20140328_R43447_30abde2cca2c60d54012073b7991b37bb2f9674e.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20140328_R43447_30abde2cca2c60d54012073b7991b37bb2f9674e.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Education Policy", "Immigration Policy" ] }