The Slatest

Virginia Will Offer In-State Tuition to Undocumented Immigrant Students

Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Democratic Virginia attorney general Mark Herring is unilaterally instructing the state’s instiutions of higher learning to offer in-state tuition to otherwise qualified students who were brought to the United States by undocumented parents. From the New York Times:

Mr. Herring, a Democrat, said current Virginia law allowed for those immigrants to receive in-state tuition, which is two or three times less than the price for out-of-state students. The attorney general’s unilateral decision came after the General Assembly rejected a state Dream Act early this year because of Republican opposition.

With the move, Virginia would join at least 17 other states that offer in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants.

FYI, per this list from the National Conference of State Legislatures and this one from the National Immigration Law Center, most of the places where said in-state tuition rules are in effect are “blue states,” with the exception of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. (Virginia went for Bush twice but then for Obama twice as well, and currently has two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor.)