by Carolyn Teasley

Created on: December 05, 2011   Last Updated: December 06, 2011

The issue of whether children of illegal immigrants are qualified to receive in-state college tuition has become very controversial. The definition of in-state tuition is the college tuition funds paid by residents of the state to a public college or university in that given state. There are federal laws that state giving in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants is breaking federal law. Section 505 of the

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Title 8, Chapter 14, Sec. 1623(a) states: "an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision for any post-secondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident."

Federal Financial student aid requires the student receiving the aid be a US citizen, a permanent resident with a current green card or an eligible non-citizen. Some people feel that if federal funds are given to children of illegal aliens to go to college to learn more academically, this will only open the door to more illegal alien students to the state to apply for in-state educational funds for college.

While the Federal government is against handing out funds to the illegal alien students, some states disagree. California is one. In 2003 MALDEF lead a campaign to promote alien amnesty to the illegal alien students for in-state college tuition. Colorado is also pro giving financial aid to illegal alien students. A prime example of how doing this will cost the colleges and universities funds was give in an article, In-state college tuition for illegal aliens: If 1000 illegal alien students graduate from Colorado High School enroll at Colorado University-Boulder at in-state rates for four years, revenue losses would exceed $65 million (Out of state citizen tuition rates per student would =$20,346, in-state rates per student = $4,022. This would generate a monetary loss of one four year student =$65,296. If this figure was multiplied by the other 999 illegal aliens, the monetary loss would be astronomical ($65,230,704.00).

Texas, New York, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, Maryland (community colleges), Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas have passed state laws that

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