NBCSanDiego.com: SAN DIEGO -- A judge has upheld a state law allowing public colleges and universities to charge in-state fees to undocumented immigrants.
The law was challenged by a class action lawsuit filed last December on behalf of out-of-state students who claimed the tuition break discriminated against U.S. citizens.
Out-of-state students pay higher rates than California residents in the state's three-tiered higher education system -- the University of California, the California State University and California community colleges. In the past, immigrants who didn't have legal status as California residents faced out-of-state rates.
But a 2001 law allows nonresidents to pay in-state fees if they attended a California high school for at least three years and graduated from a California high school.
Immigrants who are in the state illegally who apply for the tuition break must certify they are in the process of getting documentation or will do so as soon as they are eligible.
Among other things, plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued the law violates federal immigration reform legislation passed in 1996.
But Superior Court Judge Thomas Warriner ruled last week there was no indication Congress intended the Immigration and Naturalization Act or any other federal statute cited by the plaintiffs to determine resident tuition rates at state universities and community colleges.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they will appeal the ruling.
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