AB 540, enacted in 2001 by previous Governor Gray Davis, applies to students who attended high school in California for at least three academic years and graduated with a GED or an equivalent. Students also must be registered or currently enrolled in an accredited institution.
Eligible students will save approximately $13,316 per quarter at UCSD, since full-time undergraduate non-residents pay an estimated $22,717 while California residents paid $9,401 per quarter.
“UC supported AB 540,” UCOP spokesperson Ricardo Vázquez said. “We believe these are students who have worked very hard and, through their persistence, they have been able to get a place in the UC system…so [their efforts] shouldn’t be disregarded.”
The court decision was a result of a lawsuit — called Martinez v. Regents of the University of California — filed as a class action suit in 2005. According to the National Immigration Law Center, Arizona citizen Robert Martinez and 42 other U.S. citizens said AB 540 infringed on their constitutional rights, since it allowed undocumented students privileges not accessible to some U.S. citizens.
The plaintiffs argued that the bill violated federal immigration laws that ban states from granting higher education benefits to undocumented students based on residency without providing the same privilege to non-resident U.S. citizens. They also claimed that the state law violated rights of out-of-state students under the 14th Amendment, which states that U.S.-born and naturalized citizens cannot be denied the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens.
The state Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments and ruled exemptions for out-of-state tuition as constitutional since it was not based on state residency, but on other requirements like high school attendance.
Under the bill, undocumented students must file an affidavit stating their intent to apply for legal residency as soon as they are eligible. Also, students cannot hold certain non-immigrant visas because — according to last year’s annual report on tuition exemptions in the UC system — this requirement limits eligibility to U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, students with immigrant visas (including approved petitioners) and students with no legal immigration status.
In 2008-09, about 80 percent of the 2,019 students who qualified for tuition exemptions in the UC system were U.S. citizens or legal residents. Since the law’s implementation in the UC system in 2002, legal residents made up more than two-thirds of those benefiting from the law.
“The overwhelming majority of students at UC who get the AB 540 exemption are actually U.S. citizens or legal residents and the other percentage [are] potentially undocumented,” Vázquez said.
Readers can contact Regina Ip at [email protected].