In-state tuition not a draw for many immigrants

Laws offering in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants, something being considered by the Massachusetts Legislature, have sparked a sizable jump in the enrollment of such students in Texas universities but more modest increases in the majority of states providing such benefits.

Enrollment figures for six of the nine states with in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants found that Texas saw its enrollment of such students increase from about 1,500 in the fall of 2001 to roughly 8,000 last year, said Ray Grasshoff, director of special projects for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. That state has some 1.4-million undocumented immigrants, and some schools in its higher education system have been actively encouraging them to apply.

But in California, where data for the entire state was not available, figures compiled by the University of California system show that just 357 illegal immigrant students enrolled in 2004-'05, three years after the law went into effect, said spokesman Ricardo Vazquez. California is home to an estimated 2.4 million illegal immigrants, more than any other state, a recent Pew Hispanic Center study found.

The University of New Mexico system saw just 41 undocumented students enroll this fall, the first year the New Mexico law was in effect, said school spokesman Alex Gonzalez. University officials said they were unsure why the numbers have been so low, but some speculated that the prospective students are wary that signing up for in-state tuition might alert immigration authorities.

''I think there's still that fear in those students that they might get reported and deported, so it still takes a lot for them to go forward and take part in the process," Gonzalez said. ''But I anticipate those numbers growing as they become aware of the bill."

At the University of Utah, 22 undocumented immigrants are attending the school system this fall, spokesman Remi Barron reported. In the University of Washington system, 27 undocumented students were admitted this fall, spokesman Robert Rhodes said. Washington has an undocumented immigrant population roughly equivalent to that in Massachusetts: between 200,000 and 250,000 people.

In Kansas, where an estimated 55,000 to 85,000 undocumented immigrants reside, 221 undocumented immigrants were admitted to the state's public higher education institutions this fall, spokesman Kip Peterson said.

In all, nine states have passed in-state tuition laws. Only six -- California, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Washington -- provided the Globe with data on immigrant enrollment. Illinois does not track such statistics. The other states with such laws, New York and Oklahoma, could not provide data in time for this report. The total for the 208,000-student University of California does not include the entire university system in that state, where some 2.5 million students are enrolled in higher education institutions.

The Massachusetts tuition measure, which largely mirrors those passed in the other nine states, would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to obtain in-state college tuition rates if they attended Bay State high schools for at least three years, graduated from such a school, and signed an affidavit affirming that they have applied for citizenship.

Immigrant advocates have estimated that about 400 Massachusetts students would take advantage of the lower tuition. The advocates said they knew of no instances in other states in which immigrant students were targeted by immigration authorities after seeking the lower tuition.

But Ali Noorani -- executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, which is spearheading the fight to pass the in-state tuition bill -- concedes that his 400-student estimate was based on projections derived from a 2000 Census data that pegged the Bay State's undocumented immigrant population at about 100,000 to 150,000, well below current estimates.

Still, Noorani said he doubts the 400 figure will have increased significantly because, he said, the typical undocumented immigrant coming to the United States recently has been a single individual in search of work and not entire families with teenage children soon to apply to college.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who has emerged as a prominent critic of the Democrat-sponsored tuition bill, has argued that such legislation would not only reward illegal activity, but that it would also cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

For 400 students, the cost difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition over four years of education would be about $15 million. Healey has also warned that such a bill could end up costing tens of millions of dollars more because federal immigration law may require Massachusetts to allow all US citizens to get the in-state tuition rate if it allows undocumented immigrants to get it. A 1996 immigration act says that if states offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants based on their residency, the state must also offer in-state rates to out-of-state applicants, as well.

''This is money that would be better spent helping our legal immigrant community acquire the English skills they need to be productive members of our workforce," Healey wrote in a column in the Globe yesterday.

But university officials in many of the states with similar laws dispute that such laws cost public higher education institutions, saying that the laws will draw new, tuition-paying students to the schools. None of the undocumented immigrant students, they note, qualify for federal financial aid because of limits established by US immigration laws.

''Not only is there excess capacity here, but these 221 students have to pay 100 percent of the way," Kansas's Peterson said.

Opponents fought the Kansas law in court, suing the state in what appears to be the most prominent challenge in the country. A federal judge dismissed the case in July, however, saying that only the US Department of Homeland Security has standing to uphold US immigration law.

Opponents of the law quickly appealed the ruling, but they are now trying a different strategy. In August a public interest legal organization called the Washington Legal Foundation filed complaints with the Department of Homeland Security to challenge the tuition laws in Texas and New York.