A group of Missouri legislators is determined to remind the children of undocumented immigrants that no matter how hard they try, they will never be able to outrun the consequences of their parents’ illegal immigration. To these legislators, the American Dream is something that should only be available to students who were born in the right place, at the right time and to the right parents — anyone else is just freeloading. In reality, however, the children of undocumented immigrants deserve a fair shot at an affordable education through access to Missouri’s A+ Scholarship Program instead of having their eligibility voided by Senate Bill 224.
Starting in 2012, the children of undocumented immigrants were able to attain “lawful presence” through the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy. This program protects these children who arrive in the U.S. before they turn 16 from the threat of deportation and, in many states, allows them to pursue grants and scholarships and attain in-state tuition rates. After all, these children played no part in their parents’ decision to immigrate to the U.S. and should not be treated as though they did.
But wait — not so fast, said the state of Missouri. After overriding a veto by Gov. Jay Nixon, the state Senate was able to enact Senate Bill 224, which will now prevent students who have obtained lawful presence through DACA from participating in the A+ Scholarship Program.
What’s worse is that Missouri legislators have not been content in simply denying lawfully present students eligibility to the A+ Scholarship Program. Just one month before classes started, hundreds of Missouri DACA college students found out they would no longer receive in-state tuition because of a rule change in House Bill 3, the appropriations bill for the Department of Higher Education.
All together, there have been five bills filed this year with the sole intent of making it more expensive for undocumented students to enroll in a Missouri public college.
The sponsor of SB 224, Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob, seems to think that the addition of DACA students to those eligible for the A+ scholarship somehow impedes or prevents legally residing students from obtaining the scholarship themselves. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the program works. The number of students receiving the A+ scholarship varies year to year, as the number of students who meet the requirements fluctuates. There is no existing cap on how many students can receive the scholarship, but the funds are technically limited, as the funds are set aside in the budget of HB 3 every fiscal year. The only scenario wherein a legally residing resident can be denied the A+ scholarship, despite meeting all of the requirements, is if the state legislature decides not to fully fund the program during this time.
Fitzpatrick has also said one of the primary reasons SB 224 passed was due to insufficient funds in the state’s budget. In other words, the students who became A+ eligible through DACA are a drain on the state’s resources. Yet, the original purpose of the A+ scholarship program was to incentivize Missouri’s finest students to attend school in their home state rather than going elsewhere.
When it comes down to it, our state can use all the intelligent, ambitious, hard-working young people it can get it’s hands on. Extending financial benefits to those who earn them — regardless of their background — is not only the morally correct thing to do, it’s also the most economically correct choice to make. By incentivizing students to attend school in-state, the state receives tuition that they otherwise wouldn’t receive while at the same time circumventing the emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from Missouri. At the end of the day, it’s a win-win for the state.
But now, with the passage of SB 224, the Missouri Senate has made it clear that they are only interested in incentivizing students with the right kind of parents.
These students have fairly met all of the eligibility requirements while simultaneously overcoming the obstacles of being an undocumented immigrant, such as living in perpetual fear of deportation. The requirements themselves are also unquestionably high standards of merit. The program requires students to have at least 50 hours of unpaid tutoring or mentoring, maintain a GPA of at least 2.5 and an attendance record of at least 95 percent. But instead of commending these students for their accomplishments, SB 224 aims to diminish these accomplishments by ostracizing them for factors beyond their control.
Moreover, because of the attendance requirement, students often make the decision to pursue the A+ scholarship at the beginning of their high school careers. So not only is this policy change taking away a great path to success from undocumented Missourians, it’s also pulling a bait-and-switch on a significant number of students. Students who were made A+ eligible by DACA might have already begun to plan their futures with the assumption that their eligibility would not be suddenly yanked away by a callous state legislature.
SB 224 tells these students that no matter how much they dedicate themselves to their studies, their peers and their communities, they will never be able to get escape their status as undocumented residents. Our state legislature must repeal this bill and end their continuous efforts to exclude younger generations of undocumented immigrants from the American Dream.