California must preserve in-state tuition policy for immigrant students | Opinion

Across the country, extremist politicians and courts are dismantling in-state tuition policies for immigrant students, dressing up xenophobia as “fairness.”

The facts tell a different story. Assembly Bill 540 — the law that guarantees in-state tuition for students who attended California schools for at least three years, regardless of immigration status — not only transformed lives and communities, but was carefully crafted to comply with federal law. These attacks are not about impact or legality. They are about division.

Without AB 540, undocumented students who grew up in California would be forced to pay out-of-state/ international student tuition rates. For the 2025–26 academic year, a community college student would see their annual tuition jump from about $1,100 to $9,000. At a California State University campus, costs would rise from $6,400 to over $17,000. At a University of California campus, tuition would skyrocket from roughly $15,000 to more than $52,000.

That’s not “fairness.” It’s exclusion by price tag — an erasure of opportunity for the very students California’s public colleges were built to serve. Families who already contribute billions in state and local taxes would see their children locked out of higher education simply because of where they were born.

This October marks the 24th anniversary of AB 540, which was signed into law on Oct. 12, 2001. Its passage was not inevitable. Undocumented and unafraid youth, alongside allies, organized, testified and marched to demand their right to higher education. With the leadership of the late Assemblymember Marco Antonio Firebaugh, their activism built a movement that passed AB 540 and has since advanced policies like the California Dream Act and the California DREAM Loan program — watershed steps for the full recognition and inclusion of California’s student body.

Today, the stakes for immigrant students — and for California’s workforce — could not be higher. In recent months, the Department of Justice has challenged in-state tuition in both red and blue states.

Texas was the first state in the nation to enact in-state tuition for undocumented students. In June, following a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, the State of Texas filed a consent judgment with the DOJ. Within hours, the court entered an order halting the Texas Dream Act, ending the policy by judicial action.

In Texas, more than 20,000 students relied on the policy in 2021, paying over $80 million in tuition while preparing to become nurses, engineers, welders and teachers. Their parents contributed $5.4 billion in state and local taxes that same year. The American Immigration Council predicts the repeal will cost $461 million in lost economic activity annually, including $244 million in lost wages and $217 million in reduced spending power.

California must take note. With nearly 100,000 undocumented students enrolled in our colleges and universities — five times Texas’ 2021 numbers — and with the scale of our economy, the damage of repeal here would be even greater. We must defend in-state tuition from those who would rather divide our communities than see them thrive.

California leaders must counter misinformation and ensure students know their rights. Our leaders must communicate unequivocally that in-state tuition is available to all eligible students, regardless of immigration status, and use every tool available to prevent repeal.

Attacks on in-state tuition are not really about tuition. They are about division — xenophobia, racism, classism and political revenge. No policy that opens the doors of opportunity to marginalized people is safe unless we stand up and demand it.

Iliana Perez, Ph.D. is the executive director of Immigrants Rising. An esteemed leader in the field of immigrant entrepreneurship, Perez has over a decade of experience as a researcher and advocate for immigrant rights.

This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.