AZ Attorney General to Community Colleges: NO In-State Tuition for Illegals

While Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has engaged himself in a (futile) effort to convince the 81% of Americans who oppose in-state tuition for illegal aliens they are wrong–and heartless, Arizona is making sure no schools can offer this disgraceful subsidy.

Arizona’s legislature first tried to ban in-state tuition for illegals in 2005, but then-Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the bill. So the very next year, voters overwhelmingly (71%) approved Sen. Russell Pearce’s Proposition 300 to ban the practice at state schools.

But some state community colleges, such as the Maricopa County Community College District, attempted to skirt the law by allowing illegal immigrants to continue to qualify for in-state tuition as part-time students.

So Senate President Pearce and Sen. Linda Gray asked Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne for his legal opinion on whether MCC could get away with this trick to benefit illegals–and yesterday Horne said no way. State law clearly bars community colleges from granting illegals in-state tuition under any circumstances.

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