A broad executive order issued this week by President Donald Trump takes aim at so-called sanctuary cities — or those considered to be hampering federal immigration enforcement efforts. It also targets state laws that allegedly favor undocumented people.
“The attorney general, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and appropriate agency heads, shall identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of state and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including state laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-state American citizens that may violate 8 U.S.C. 1623 or that favor aliens in criminal charges or sentencing,” the order reads.
Arizona voters approved a measure in 2022 that allows all students who graduate from high school here to access in-state tuition and state scholarships — regardless of immigration status. The measure received bipartisan support and undid an older state law explicitly prohibiting undocumented immigrants from receiving certain benefits, including in-state tuition.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipient Reyna Montoya is the founder and CEO of Phoenix immigrant advocacy group Aliento. She says the change also helps the state, by sending more people to college and into the workforce.
“We are seeing that we’re having a huge problem of talent, that we are not meeting the needs of our workforce, that we are getting behind in innovation as a country, because we are not being competitive enough,” she said. “So we should be thinking as a society, as a nation — how do we incentivize all people in the United States to continue to further their education and keep their talent here in the states?”
Arizona is one of about two dozen states and territories where some undocumented students have in-state tuition access.
Montoya says some 2,000 undocumented high schoolers graduate from Arizona high schools every year and, under the 2022 law, they now enjoy the same benefits as their U.S.-born peers.
“We have seen more students remaining in the state of Arizona, we’ve been having some conversations with the colleges, universities, and we’ve also seen an increase in enrollment of the Dreamer population,” she said.
Montoya says she believes the order will be the subject of litigation, and for the time being, Aliento is encouraging people to continue with their education.
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