ST. LOUIS – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri filed charges in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City Wednesday on behalf of three immigrant students who charge three universities with causing their tuition to “explode.”
The two students, identified as either Jane Doe or John Doe, allege that St. Louis Community College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City charged the two students with tuition rates at least twice as high as the resident tuition rates they expected to pay since they live within the boundaries required for resident tuition.
One other lawsuit was filed against the Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, but it has since been redacted. However, the ACLU left the possibility open to refile the case.
Both students, who were born outside of the United States and brought into the country when they were children (Jane was nine and John was one), had previously received favorable Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) determination. DACA determination does not grant lawful status, but it does allow for employment authorization and other privileges for undocumented immigrants not considered a threat to national security or public safety.
The lawsuit will focus on the legality of preamble language in HB 3 passed by Gov. Jay Nixon in May, which states “no funds shall be expended at public institutions of higher education that offer a tuition rate to any student with an unlawful immigration status in the United States that is less than the tuition rate charged to international students[.]”
Tony Rothert, the legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, decried the fact that the students, who had lived, worked and attended school in Missouri, were treated as second-class people.
“It is shameful to treat DACA students like outcasts, when they have lived, worked and gone to schools in this country since they were children,” Rothert said. “Missouri cannot afford to drive talented students away.”
“Our Missouri public institutions of higher learning exist to open the doors of opportunity to hard-working students striving to get ahead. Now, there are extreme financial burdens being put on the backs of students already struggling to achieve their goals of higher education,” said Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri, in a statement. “To punish students who had no say in how they arrived in this country is not only mean-spirited, it is against the law.”
