California is spending tens of millions of dollars to help undocumented students pay for college, a policy that has sparked frustration among some state residents who say they are struggling to afford their own tuition bills.
Under California’s higher education aid programs, undocumented students may qualify for taxpayer-funded grants and other forms of financial assistance. Thousands are also eligible for in-state tuition, community college fee waivers and subsidized student loans.
As of 2023, roughly 102,000 undocumented immigrants were enrolled in California colleges and universities — more than in any other state in the country.
The benefits come at a time when many middle-class families in California say they fall through the cracks, earning too much to receive significant aid but not enough to comfortably absorb annual college costs that can exceed $45,000.
Ava Schmidt, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Southern California, described the situation as “ridiculous.”
Schmidt, a Bay Area native majoring in political science, said she was awarded only $2,000 in financial aid last year, leaving her father to use retirement savings and take out loans to cover the remaining costs.
With USC tuition now surpassing $75,000 annually, Schmidt said she works off campus to help make ends meet, yet still finds it difficult to keep up with rent, groceries and other basic expenses.
She said she had hoped to participate in a work-study program as well, but was not offered a position.
“I felt like I did all the work to earn my spot in this in this school,” Schmidt told the California Post. “And yet I’m the one that’s not getting aid, and undocumented illegal aliens are instead getting that money.”
California offers one of the country’s broadest systems of state financial assistance available to qualifying illegal students.
Those who meet income, academic and other eligibility requirements can apply for state Cal Grants through the California Dream Act Application — a program estimated to cost $65 million when it launched.
These students can also access the California Dream Loan program, which offers subsidized loans to undocumented undergraduates who are ineligible for federal student loans.
Some illegal migrant students who meet California education requirements can also qualify for an AB 540 nonresident tuition exemption, allowing them to pay the same tuition charged to California residents at the state’s public universities.
At community colleges, qualifying undocumented students can also receive the California College Promise Grant, which waives the system’s $46-per-unit enrollment fee.
The savings can be substantial in a state where room and board alone at public colleges and universities can run into the tens of thousands of dollars each academic year.
But US citizens and legal residents who fail to qualify for sufficient aid can be left facing hefty bills.
Cooper Vincik, 21, a senior at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., expects to graduate deeply in debt.
The aspiring screenwriter said he’ll owe tens of thousands of dollars after failing to qualify for substantial financial aid while watching his illegal classmates receive assistance.
“It’s a very tricky subject, especially in this state, because one of my best friends growing up, his parents illegally immigrated to this country,” said Vincik, from San Diego.
“I think we’re such a close nation,” he added. “But the bottom line is, every other country, including Mexico, if we snuck over, they would turn us right back, unless we were contributing something.”
Tuition at Chapman is nearly $70,000 a year.
Vincik said he cut the cost of his education by spending his first two years at Santa Barbara City College before transferring to Chapman.
But he claimed undocumented students at the community college were given greater access to financial assistance, adding that students were also instructed on how to respond if immigration agents appeared on campus.
“It was very ‘illegal first,’” he said.
“We’d have all these different procedures to kind of hide them from ICE, and they’d walk us through this stuff,” he added. “They’d give us little cards telling us where to call if we saw ICE.”
Vincik argued that because the community college is publicly funded, taxpayer money was being used for efforts to counter federal immigration enforcement.
“So, it’s really an issue on multiple ends,” he said.
California’s average in-state public college tuition is close to the national average, but students can be hit particularly hard by the state’s notoriously high housing and living costs.
The state’s financial benefits for undocumented students stretch back more than two decades.
Assembly Bill 540, signed into law in 2001, allowed qualifying students who were not California residents — including illegal immigrants — to avoid paying higher nonresident tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities.
A decade later, the California Dream Act opened state and campus-funded financial aid to qualifying illegal migrant students. At the time, the cost of the program was estimated at a whopping $65 million.
These students also qualify for waivers that cover tuition at community college in California.
California has even set aside millions of dollars for a loan program that has struggled to find enough borrowers.
The state provides the University of California system with $2.5 million annually for its Dream Loan program, which UC matches with another $2.5 million.
But demand has repeatedly fallen short of the available funding.
“Demand for the program has not yet matched the funding available,” a UC report to the state Legislature said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said California’s spending on illegal college students is difficult to justify when many other residents are struggling with the cost of living.
“Every day we see a new way Californians are being ripped off by the system, and we’ve had enough of it,” he said. “We pay the highest taxes in the country for the worst results.”
Hilton said he would seek to cut state-funded aid for illegal migrant students if elected governor, as well as lower taxes for Californians.
One of his proposals would eliminate state income taxes for workers earning less than $150,000.
A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back, saying illegal migrants do not receive more financial aid simply because of their immigration status.
“California has improved college affordability and access,” the spokesman said.
He added that a quarter of University of California and California State University students, nearly half of students at nonprofit private institutions, and more than half of students at for-profit colleges in the state take out student loans.
In 2022-23, 23% of first-time, full-time California undergraduates held student loans, compared with 38% nationally, he said.
