Judge schedules hearing for in-state tuition lawsuit
A Fulton County Superior Court judge has scheduled a May 6 hearing for a lawsuit about whether immigrants without legal status in the U.S. should be granted in-state tuition in Georgia.
Judge John Goger will be hearing arguments from 39 immigrants who say the Georgia Board of Regents is not following its own tuition policy.
At issue is a controversial Obama administration program that has granted the plaintiffs a temporary reprieve from deportation. The federal government says people who have been granted that benefit are legally present in the U.S., which is what Georgia’s in-state tuition policy requires.
The board has argued in court papers that sovereign immunity shields it from the lawsuit and it hasn’t been established whether the plaintiffs “meet the regulatory and statutory requirements of legal presence in the state of Georgia” to qualify for in-state tuition.
Opponents of the lawsuit say in-state tuition should be reserved for those who have legal status in the U.S. Supporters say it makes sense to award the benefit to students who could contribute more to Georgia’s economy after boosting their skills in college.
Read more about the case here.
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Jeremy Redmon is an award-winning journalist, essayist and educator with more than three decades of experience reporting for newspapers.
