Public universities in Arizona said Thursday they will not stop offering in-state tuition for eligible immigrants granted deferred deportation status, despite recent threats of a lawsuit from the state attorney general.
Arizona Board of Regents President Eileen Klein sent a letter to the state attorney general's office stressing that abruptly ending in-state tuition for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program would have "a devastating impact on hundreds of innocent young people."
The letter came after the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned a 2015 decision by a lower-court judge saying DACA recipients were considered legally present in the U.S. under federal immigration law and therefore qualified for state benefits.
The Maricopa County Community College District board said it will ask the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn the latest ruling.
If the state Supreme Court reverses the decision and allows in-state tuition rates at the community college, it would mean treating one set of DACA students differently from another because "students who have chosen to attend an Arizona public university will be denied in-state tuition while their community college counterparts are not," Klein said.
The Board of Regents, which oversees three public universities and other colleges, had voted soon after the decision to allow in-state costs to stand while the issue remains under court review.
