Got Immigration? The World’s Best Damn Blog About U.S. Immigration

This has been an eventful week for immigration issues in California.  First, the California Supreme Court upheld AB540 – the state law that allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.  The State had been sued by a group of out-of-state U.S. citizen students attending schools in the University of California or California State University systems claiming that it was unfair for them to pay higher tuition while undocumented students – who are technically foreign students – were able to pay the lower in-state tuition.  Although at first glance the out-of-state students’ argument has some merit, it really doesn’t, since many undocumented students have resided in California most of their lives, and are therefore “residents” for state purposes.  The State of California is not in the business of inquiring into legal status.  Many state benefits indeed depend on immigration status, but anyone that lives in California for a certain period of time - legally or not - should still qualify as a “Californian” when it comes to benefits that depend solely on their degree of connection with the State.  Second, the L.A. Times had a front-page story today about the student body president of Cal State Fresno, one of the schools in the California State University system, being an undocumented immigrant.  Many undocumented university students in California have been revealing their status as part of a campaign to encourage passage of the Dream Act, the bill pending in Congress that would legalize undocumented students that are attending college and who have been in the States for a certain period of time.  Pedro Ramirez, the Fresno student body president, was sort of forced to reveal his status when he had to decline a check for $9,000.00 from the university that is normally paid as a form of compensation for the president’s services.  As expected, there are calls for Mr. Ramirez’s resignation and calls of support for him in about equal measure - but I’d be very surprised if this story goes anywhere or if anything happens to him.  ICE has not been putting undocumented students without criminal histories in proceedings, and have little interest in getting investigative tips from newspapers.  Still, Mr. Ramirez has got to feel a little uneasy about his position right now, and I hope that, for his sake, this story blows over soon.