An estimated half-million undocumented students enrolled in colleges and universities generated up to $132.6 million in COVID-19 federal stimulus emergency aid for their institutions, according to a recent analysis from a Washington-based policy institute. Yet those same students are barred from receiving any of that aid.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) said in a recent report that undocumented students were included in the formula by which emergency grants were allocated. The funding to colleges was based on institutions’ share of Pell Grant recipients and non-Pell Grant recipients.
“That latter group includes all students regardless of immigration status — as long as they weren’t studying entirely online before the crisis began,” the report stated.
CAP denounced the Department of Education’s CARES Act revisions, which made undocumented students ineligible for funds.
“It’s necessary that institutions receive aid to support the undocumented students they serve, but to then deny these same, most-vulnerable students money is nonsensical.”
The action stunned the higher education administrators
tasked with disbursing the funds, as well as the affected students and their families, many of whom are unemployed during the coronavirus lockdown and were expecting the support.
