Suit seeking in-state tuition for those without legal status dismissed

University of Georgia, $4,295; $13,400

Georgia College & State University, $3,485; $12,659

Georgia State University, $4,056; $13,161

Southern Polytechnic State University, $2,761; $9,826

*Georgia Southern University, $2,549; $8,997

**Albany State University, $2,370; $8,623

Georgia Gwinnett College, $1,774; $6,622

***Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, $1,495; $5,523

****Atlanta Metropolitan State College, $1,330; $5,034

Notes:

* same rate for Valdosta State, Columbus State, and Kennesaw State universities, University of North Georgia (4-year degree), University of West Georgia

** same rate for Armstrong State, Clayton State, Fort Valley State, Georgia Southwestern State and Savannah State universities

*** same rate for College of Coastal Georgia and Dalton State, Gordon State and Middle Georgia State universities

**** same rate for Bainbridge State, Darton State, East Georgia State, Georgia Highlands, Georgia Perimeter and South Georgia State colleges

Source: University System of Georgia, Board of Regents approved fiscal 2015 undergraduate tuition rates

“I’m glad to see that we have a judge in Fulton County that decided to uphold the laws.”

Debbie Dooley, a co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party

“Preventing these students from obtaining an affordable education through in-state tuition rates places an unnecessary obstacle in their way to success and does a disservice not only to them, but to our city, region and state.”

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed

Deep coverage

To see other Atlanta Journal-Constitution stories involving tuition costs and students who were brought to this country illegally as children, go to MyAJC.com.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking in-state college tuition in Georgia for immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.

In a 19-page order filed Monday, Judge John Goger said Georgia law bars such lawsuits through sovereign immunity. At the same time, he was sympathetic toward the 39 plaintiffs in the case, calling them “intelligent individuals who seek to better themselves through education and are presumably the type of people, residents, that this state wants and needs.”

“They understandably encounter enormous frustration and confusion,” Goger wrote, “when financial impediments hinder their educational goals as immigration and educational policies are enacted and propagated in a manner which is arguably vague and contradictory.”

The attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — Charles Kuck — said Tuesday that Goger’s decision would be appealed. The plaintiffs, Kuck added, are also considering pursuing the matter in federal court.

Goger filed his order the same day Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation making people without legal status in the U.S. eligible to qualify for in-state college tuition in that state. Florida is now among 20 states that have laws or policies allowing people who meet certain criteria to pay in-state tuition rates, regardless of their legal status, according to the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant rights organization.

Rigoberto Rivera, a plaintiff who was illegally brought here from Mexico as a child, vowed to continue his fight. The Roswell High School graduate wants to go to college and study criminal justice in his home state. But he said he can’t afford it because Georgia won’t let him pay its in-state tuition rate, which is several thousand dollars below the out-of-state rate.

“We cannot wait any longer,” Rivera said. “We were hopeful that he would rule in our favor so we could start school this coming semester.”

Georgia’s Board of Regents, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office and Gov. Nathan Deal’s office declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.

At the heart of the case in Georgia is a federal program that has granted Rivera and his fellow plaintiffs a temporary reprieve from deportation. The federal government says people granted this relief are legally present in the U.S. Georgia’s in-state tuition policy requires “lawful presence.”

But state attorneys sought to dismiss the lawsuit, saying sovereign immunity shields the Board of Regents from the lawsuit. They also said the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — also called DACA — doesn’t affect Georgia’s tuition policies or give the plaintiffs any rights to in-state tuition.

Goger said it was “lamentable” that a court could not resolve that issue. He noted DACA recipients are granted federal work permits and can apply for Georgia driver’s licenses.

“The present reality is that these individuals can live, work, and drive in our state lawfully, which arguably precludes a determination that they are ‘unlawfully’ present,” he said. “Likewise, it may well be that a court would determine that DACA is no more than an exercise in prosecutorial discretion which adds nothing to the legitimacy of one’s presence in this State.”

The DACA program applies to immigrants who were illegally brought here as children and attended school here and haven’t been convicted of felonies. It’s unknown precisely how many people Goger’s decision could affect. A University System of Georgia survey found there were 501 “undocumented” students enrolled in its institutions in fall 2010. As of March 31, 553,197 people have been approved for DACA nationwide. Of those, 17,356 are Georgians.

The University System also prevents students in the deferred action program from attending any institution that has not enrolled all of its academically qualified applicants for the previous two years. That prohibition now applies to the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State, Georgia Regents and Georgia College and State universities. A spokesman for the state Board of Regents said in 2011, when the prohibition was put into place, that the board adopted the ban to address concerns that academically qualified Georgia residents would be blocked from attending state colleges because of students living illegally in the U.S.

Goger’s sovereign immunity ruling is the first of its kind in such in-state tuition cases, said Michael Olivas, an immigration law professor at the University of Houston who has testified in similar lawsuits in other states. Olivas predicted, “These kids will have to appeal, and at some point Georgia is going to lose.”