Maryland lawmakers take cues from California legal battles to craft a tuition policy for undocumented immigrants.
When the University of Maryland System pondered offering in-state tuition to undocumented students, chancellor William E. Kirwan looked to California — among the early states to pass such a law — for a model.
That changed last fall, when a California appellate court ruled the law conflicts with federal law. The California Supreme Court agreed to review that decision in arguments expected to be heard late this year or next year.
Meanwhile, undocumented students in California continue to receive in-state tuition.
But states like Maryland now are avoiding that model as it sits in legal limbo in California.
“We thought maybe what was happening in California did work for us. If a student were to graduate from a Maryland high school after going for three years and was an unregistered immigrant, we would grant them in-state tuition,” Kirwan tells Diverse. “But what seems to have happened in California is to say, ‘Well, you can’t use that to get around this’ — at least that’s what the appeals court in California says.”
