In 2010, the California Supreme Court ruled that illegal immigrants of California are conditionally given some academic benefits – reduced in-state tuition rates for public universities’ enrolment. This issue has caused quite an uproar among the legal U. S. residents & citizens, as well as among the illegal immigrants with educational needs. Having gone through about a decade of rulings since the first bill regarding education for illegal immigrants started, the ruling has finally pushed through and is now applicable at more than 20 states in the U.S., the minimum number of states required to agree to the act before it could be elected.

To briefly explain, the bills related to immigrant tuition benefits have were enacted since as early as 2001, with the earliest ruling explaining that unlawful immigrants are eligible to the pay residential tuition fees with several conditions. The conditions made were reasonable, stating that the immigrant student needs to have a minimum of 3-years’ attendance at a California high school or another institution from the same state with equivalent academic ranking. They should also have had either registered or attended an accredited higher education institution in California, along with an affidavit confirming that the students have applied for their legal immigration statuses or at the very least, will be doing so soon. Currently, the bill is better known as the California Dream Act, divided into two bills – AB130 and AB131.

                This has several benefits for both the U.S. citizens and the immigrant rights group. Firstly, the rights to education can be honoured with this ruling. Immigrants themselves already have a hard time trying to get a job that can support their families in the U.S., and they are still ineligible for financial aids from both the state and the federation. Without the reduced tuition for immigrants in the California state, they will not only face difficulties paying their tuition fees since they do not have financial aids, but the sky-high amount that needs to be paid will make it impossible for them to be part of higher education as well. This academic benefit will allow everyone in the United States a chance to pursue their higher educations a little easier, and students meeting certain requirements are also given the chance to apply for scholarships that are not funded by the state to help them get through the entire course. Overall, the Dream Act can help less financially-able students who are passionate about their education and looking to pave the path to their future in the state of California.

                The U.S. citizens do not have to worry too much about having an overload of illegal immigrants in the colleges, however, as this rebate of up to $12,000 annually only applies to California and any other states that this act and bill may apply to in the future. Meanwhile, this act is only limited to private higher education institutions in California and other states that have agreed to the act. It is understandable that this bill has caused a ripple of worry regarding the rise in number of immigrants in the California simply because of the financial assistance offered. In fact, most locals are worried that the rise in immigrants applying for non-state funded scholarships raise the competition among U.S. citizens since their chances of winning the scholarship are now lowered by the number of immigrants’ applications. It should be noted that not everyone who applies for the financial discount under California Dream Act are illegal immigrants. Some of these people are also U.S. citizens who have successfully enrolled and graduated from a California high school, but have yet to meet the state’s residency requirements.

                There are, of course, arguments against this bill and act in general. Various sources argued that this act itself can cost the state up to $65 million annually, putting California in an undesirable position financially. Communities opposing this court ruling has also argued that even if the students do get through their higher education, the graduates will still not be eligible to work legally in the United States if they remain undocumented. As such, the resources spent by the state to help these immigrants get their higher education settled are merely wasting the money they are offering and the amount spent might not provide any return from the immigrants if they did not follow through with their citizenship application status. There isn’t much to worry about this issue, however, since the financial rebate is only applicable to immigrants who have already met the prerequisites to be legal U.S. citizens. Since the application requires them to apply to be legal citizens first, most of these students will already give them access to permanent residency in that state. Moreover, if there are indeed little wiggle room for these immigrants as it is, most of them would not want to risk losing the financial aid or resort to move to other states where such offers are not provided.

                In short, the California Dream Act has sufficient backups and facts to show why the act does more good than harm. Students pursuing their studies while they have yet to obtain a legal and permanent residency status in the state will be able to further their studies without much issues from the state and government, as long as they apply for citizenship in California. This results in the increase of future labour workforce in the state, since it will be much easier for students who obtained the legal status to work there than anywhere else in the U.S. While the pre-existing U.S. citizens may find the competition a little threatening, this will also remind them that they still need to put in effort to obtain and maintain the scholarships & financial aids that they frequently take for granted due to their citizenship. With almost 25,000 undocumented students in California receiving in-state tuition, this act helps the students – typically not from wealthy families – get access to one of their basic rights – a proper education. Since the bill is based on prerequisites before a student can get access to this education benefit, it is believed that the bill can do more harm than good to the U.S. residents and illegal immigrants, all of whom, I’m sure, are looking forward to getting the benefits from this aid to help them with their higher education.