California is spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to help illegal immigrants attend college while many citizens and legal residents struggle to cover their own tuition bills. Illegal immigrant students can receive state-funded grants, subsidized loans, community college fee waivers, and in-state tuition rates under California law. Approximately 102,000 illegal immigrants were attending colleges and universities in the state as of 2023, reportedly the largest number in the country.
The spending received renewed attention after two California college students described the debt their families have assumed despite receiving little financial aid. Their experiences were included in a September 5th report published by the California Post, the New York Post’s California edition, and promoted through the New York Post’s X account. The report also examined the extensive system of state assistance California has created for illegal alien students.
California began offering in-state tuition rates to qualifying illegal alien students through Assembly Bill 540, which was signed into law in 2001. The California Dream Act, enacted a decade later, expanded the available benefits by opening state financial aid programs to qualifying illegal immigrant students. Applicants must still satisfy income, academic, enrollment, and other requirements before receiving assistance.
Undocumented students cannot receive federal financial aid through the FAFSA, but those who qualify can apply for Cal Grants through the California Dream Act Application. They may also qualify for university grants, California College Promise Grant fee waivers, Dream Loans, and other state or institutionally funded assistance. As the New York Post reported, the benefits come as college expenses for California families can easily exceed $45,000 per year.
University of Southern California senior Ava Schmidt, 21, received only $2,000 in financial aid during the previous year, according to the report. Her father consequently dipped into his retirement savings and took out loans to help pay the remaining expenses. USC tuition now exceeds $75,000 annually, and Schmidt works an off-campus job while attempting to cover her rent and grocery bills.
Schmidt, a political science major raised in the Bay Area, said she had also hoped to receive a work-study position but was not offered one. She described the difference between the assistance available to her and the taxpayer-funded programs available to illegal alien students as “ridiculous.” California’s programs do not automatically award aid based on immigration status, but they allow eligible applicants without legal status to receive state and institutional assistance despite being ineligible for federal financial aid.
Cooper Vincik, another 21-year-old California student, expects to graduate from Chapman University in Orange with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The aspiring screenwriter told the California Post that he failed to qualify for substantial financial assistance while watching illegal immigrant classmates receive aid. Vincik also acknowledged that the issue is personal for him because one of his best friends growing up had parents who immigrated to the country illegally.
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has opposed California’s spending on college benefits for illegal immigrants and argued that the money should instead be directed toward state residents. Hilton has proposed ending that assistance as part of a broader plan to reduce state spending and taxes. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s office defended the policy, saying illegal immigrant students do not receive additional aid merely because of their status and must meet the applicable eligibility requirements.
For Schmidt, those requirements did little to ease the burden placed on her own family after she earned admission to USC. “I felt like I did all the work to earn my spot in this in this school,” she told the California Post. “And yet I’m the one that’s not getting aid, and undocumented illegal aliens are instead getting that money.”
Scott Bessent’s Treasury, meanwhile, is working hard to cut off illegal aliens:
Featured image credit: Missvain, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons