A group of Democratic state senators has introduced legislation that would make immigrants who have received a special reprieve from deportation eligible to pay in-state college tuition in Georgia.
Sponsored by Sen. Nan Orrock of Atlanta, Senate Bill 44 would apply to immigrants accepted into the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That program grants temporary deportation deferrals and work permits to immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.
Georgia’s University System bars such immigrants from paying in-state college tuition rates, which are several thousand dollars below the out-of-state rates. In June, a Fulton County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to reverse that policy. The 39 plaintiffs are now appealing to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Orrock, whose bill faces tough sledding in the Republican-controlled state Legislature, said bright deferred action recipients are leaving Georgia to attend college elsewhere because they can’t afford the out-of-state rates here.
“That talent is leaving Georgia and it is hard to imagine it will come back,” she said. “It is part of the wealth we are squandering — the wealth new generations bring to infuse our economy with creative, entrepreneurial talents and skills that are in demand.”
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