
Illegal
immigrants across U.S. get financial aid for college
Increased
spending is heating up debate over who should receive state taxpayers-funded
higher education benefits.
By
Esther Wickham | The Center Square justthenews.com 6-20-26
State
financial aid continues to expand within higher education, allowing money to go
to eligible illegal immigrant students.
The
increased spending is heating up debate over who should receive state
taxpayers-funded higher education benefits.
Currently,
around 21 states and the District of Columbia offer in-state tuition
eligibility to certain illegal immigrant students, and 18 states and D.C.
provide access to state financial aid programs, according to Higher Ed immigration.
For
example, at a University of California school, the base in-state tuition is
roughly $15,000 annually. For nonresidents, the base tuition is over $31,000,
which means eligible illegal immigrants are essentially receiving $16,000 a
year in aid.
The
policies are part of a broader effort that has expanded over the past two
decades to increase college access for immigrant students, including recipients
of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA provides temporary
protection from deportation and renewable work permits to certain immigrants
who were brought to the U.S. as children.
More
than 900,000 of these individuals are estimated to be eligible for DACA. In
addition, over 500,000 illegal immigrant students are enrolled in U.S. colleges
and universities.
Critics
argue that the programs impose costs on taxpayers and divert limited higher
education resources away from U.S. citizens.
A
2025 report
by the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that
education-related expenses associated with illegal immigration total $5.7
billion nationally.
Ira
Mehlman, media director for FAIR, pointed to the 1996 Illegal Immigration
Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which specifically created a provision
requiring any state offering in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants to
make the same benefit available to U.S. citizen students, regardless of which
state they happen to live in.
States
keep “finding new ways to provide benefits to illegal aliens,” Mehlman told The
Center Square. “A lot of American students are being shut out of those state
universities because those seats are now occupied by illegal aliens, and then
taxpayers are being forced to pay for it.”
Texas
pioneered this loophole that conditioned in-state tuition on having completed
three years of high school in the state rather than looking at immigration
status, Mehlman added.
Texas
became the first state to adopt such a policy in 2001 through what became known
as the Texas Dream Act.
In
June 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued
Texas, arguing the program violated federal law. A federal court subsequently
blocked enforcement of the Texas Dream Act. The lawsuit is currently on appeal
at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Advocacy
groups have sought to intervene, arguing the case was resolved without
sufficient judicial review.
In
Texas, state records show that colleges and universities distributed $635.2
million in state-funded gift aid to 133,989 students in 2023. According to a
report by Every Texan, 3,566 Texas Dream Act students received $17.5 million in
state-supported grants, accounting for less than 3% of total state gift aid distributed
that year.
The
taxpayer cost associated with the Development, Relief and Education for Alien
Minors or DREAM Act
program and others varies by state.
Lance
Izumi, senior director of education studies at Pasadena-based Pacific Research
Institute, argued that taxpayer-funded aid for illegal immigrant students
raises concerns about fairness and state spending priorities.
"Government
financial aid to illegal immigrant students is wrong on three counts: fairness,
fiscal policy and planning for higher education's future," Izumi told The
Center Square.
Izumi
noted that American students collectively hold roughly $1.8 trillion in student
loan debt and argued that taxpayer-funded scholarships for illegal immigrant
students may reduce resources available for citizens.
"It
is also not fair to give lower in-state tuition to an illegal immigrant who
broke the law to enter this country, while denying that lower tuition to a law-abiding
American citizen in another state," he said.
Izumi
also questioned whether colleges facing enrollment declines have expanded
outreach to Illegal immigrant students, partly to offset falling student
populations.
“In
reality, pushing illegal-immigrant enrollment is a way for adults in higher
education to save their jobs by finding a new pool of potential students rather
than addressing the core reasons for falling college enrollment: politicization
of courses, economic irrelevance of many courses and majors, and deteriorating
academic rigor,” Izumi said.
Kassandra
Gonzalez, senior attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project's Beyond Borders
Program, working on the Texas lawsuit, told The Center Square that the issue is
complicated because there is a distinction between immigrants who are
"lawfully present" and those who have "lawful status."
“The
misinformation and the frankly wrong narrative of this idea that dreamers or
students who are able to take higher education with the Dream Act are taking
opportunities from others is not the reality of economics,” Gonzalez said.
Immigrant
students contribute to local economies and give back to their communities,
Gonzalez added.
“I
think the fiction that we hear in the immigration debate in general, like, ‘Oh,
well, they're taking something from someone else,’ I always go back to, well,
this idea that they don't pay taxes, or that these students aren't
contributing. It's like there's actual data that they are giving back to the
economy of Texas,” Gonzalez added.
According
to Every
Texan, immigrants in Texas who hold bachelor's degrees earn substantially
higher incomes than those with only high school diplomas. The organization
estimates that the higher earnings associated with a college degree generate
additional state and local tax revenue.
The
Every Texan report estimated that Texas Dream Act students enrolled in 2023
could ultimately generate more than $43 million in additional annual state and
local tax revenue through higher educational attainment and earnings.
According
to the California
Budget and Policy Center, illegal immigrants paid an estimated $8.5 billion
in state and local taxes in 2022.
That
same year, California residents paid an average of $3,734.82 in state income
taxes. With roughly 19.6 million taxpaying residents, that equates to about
$73.2 billion in state income tax revenue, not including sales taxes or
higher-income tax brackets.
Mehlman
told The Center Square that tax payments do not place illegal immigrants with
citizens when it comes to public benefits.
Just
because illegal immigrants pay taxes, “that doesn’t put them on an equal
footing with legal residents and citizens,” Mehlman said.
Along
with Texas, several other states have expanded access to higher-education
assistance in recent years.
California,
Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon,
Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington are among the
jurisdictions that provide broad access to state financial aid and grant
programs for illegal immigrant students who meet applicable eligibility
requirements.
In
New York, lawmakers enacted the José Peralta New York State DREAM Act,
expanding access to state financial aid for eligible illegal immigrant
students. The DREAM Act allows immigrant students to apply for state financial
aid for undergraduate or graduate study at eligible colleges and universities.
The
state's 2019-20 budget, when it was first enacted, included $27 million to
support implementation of the DREAM Act.
New
York is home to an estimated 21,250 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or
DACA, recipients.
Through
the DREAM Act, eligible illegal immigrant students may receive awards through
the state's Tuition Assistance Program, which provides up to $5,665 annually.
For
the 2025–26 budget, TAP alone provides more than $698 million annually to
roughly 255,000 New York students. DREAM Act recipients are funded through
these broader aid programs rather than through a standalone DREAM Act
appropriation.
A
New York City fact
sheet reported that individuals eligible for the DREAM Act contributed an
estimated $1.3 billion to the city's gross domestic product in 2017 and earned
more than $873 million collectively, with average annual earnings of about
$18,600.
In
Illinois, access to state financial aid through House Bill 460 was signed into
law by the Gov. J.B. Pritzker in December 2025.
The
bill added in the Retention of Illinois Students and Equity Act, allowing
eligible illegal immigrant students to apply for state-administered financial
aid programs regardless of immigration status.
The
change made illegal immigrant students eligible for state programs such as the
Monetary Award Program grant, which provides need-based financial assistance
for higher education.
Illinois
allocated over $700 million for MAP grants during the 2024 fiscal year.
The
states of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina prohibit enrollment of illegal
immigrant students into state financial aid programs, according to Higher Ed
Immigration.
The
Center Square reached out to the American Immigration Council and the U.S.
Department of Education for comment but did not receive a response.