Arizona’s three public universities and a nonprofit organization have teamed up to fundraise millions of dollars to assist Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients who have seen their college tuition fees skyrocket, following a devastating Arizona Supreme Court decision last year barring them from accessing in-state tuition rates, even if they’d called the state home for years.
Following the 2017 decision declaring that DACA beneficiaries were ineligible for in-state tuition rates, advocates warned that the new costs would stomp on the higher education dreams of many. They were right. At Maricopa Community Colleges for example—where “the ruling effectively tripled tuition costs”—enrollment among DACA recipients dropped 40%. Even a 150% tuition rate for some DACA recipients could keep college out of reach. This was the impetus for the “Keep the Dream Alive” effort.
“The goal of the campaign is to raise $5 million by the start of the 2019-2020 school year,” the Arizona Republic reports, “to provide tuition assistance to DACA students enrolled in any of Arizona's three public universities—Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University—and at any of the 10 Maricopa Community Colleges or at Pima Community College in Tucson.” When undocumented youth are also barred from federal aid despite paying taxes, this will provide relief for many young people.
Rising college costs—as well as congressional inaction on permanent protections like the Dream and Promise Act—created a “strain on my family last year," said Perla Martinez, a sophomore studying digital culture at Arizona State University. She’s one of an estimated 274 DACA recipients there, and one of the estimated 25,000 beneficiaries in the state. "My dad didn’t have that much money and neither did my mom. It’s hard to know whether you’re really going to be fine or not."
As advocacy group leader José Patiño told the State Press, it "makes no financial sense" to block the potential of young people who can help revitalize communities and states. After all, this is their home.
"The DACA students are part of this country," said Chicanos Por La Causa leader David Adame. “They grew up here. They got educated here. Why not take advantage of that investment that has been made to have them in our work force to help us be the leading country in the world."