OKLAHOMA CITY
With the implementation of a state anti-illegal immigration law looming, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education on Thursday adopted a new policy to restrict financial aid for undocumented students and toughen in-state tuition requirements.
By a 5-1 vote, with three abstentions, regents approved the changes, a week before House Bill 1804 goes into effect.
Under the new rules, undocumented students who have lived in Oklahoma for at least two years and graduate from a state high school will remain eligible to receive state financial aid if they have filed an application with the federal government to legalize their immigration status.
Had the regents not acted Thursday, House Bill 1804 would have rendered ineffective the regents’ previous policy, adopted in 2003, regarding financial aid and in-state tuition for undocumented students. But the law provided that regents could adopt a new policy to establish conditions under which undocumented students could still be eligible to pay resident tuition and receive state financial aid.
Under the old policy, undocumented students who had lived in the state for two years and either graduated from high school or obtained a GED in the state could establish eligibility to pay resident tuition and receive state financial aid by filing an affidavit stating the student would apply to legalize immigration status as soon as he or she was eligible to do so.
Now, that affidavit would only establish eligibility to pay in-state tuition. To establish eligibility to receive state financial aid, the student must file with the federal government an application to legalize his or her immigration status. The eligibility of students with a GED also has been eliminated.
