The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies have increased stress among the country’s roughly 14 million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization.
The sudden increase in the number of arrests and dramatic deportations of immigrants in the past year has attracted widespread media attention.
A less publicized problem is that many young, undocumented immigrants have a harder time applying to and staying in college.
As a teacher education researcher and former high school teacher in South Carolina, I have researched how restrictive education policies make it harder for immigrant students, especially undocumented students, to receive a college degree.
Bumpy Road to Higher Education for Undocumented Students
In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that students could not be discriminated against based on their immigration status.
This ruling ensured that immigrant students could not be denied entry to K-12 public schools.
The caveat is that the ruling did not extend to higher education.
In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Accountability Act, which made it harder for undocumented immigrants who are deported to the US to re-enter, among other changes to increase border security.
This law also said states could not offer in-state tuition to undocumented students at public universities unless they extended the same benefits to out-of-state US citizens.
Then, in the early 2000s, a bipartisan group of Texas representatives helped pass a bill that opened up in-state tuition to undocumented students. The bill bases tuition and scholarships on specific residency requirements, such as in-state high school graduation, allowing the bill to circumvent the 1996 federal law.
Also in the early 2000s, California, Illinois, Washington and New York also passed similar legislation allowing undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition — and in some cases, in-state scholarships — at state universities.
Even some conservative states, such as Utah, Oklahoma and Kansas, passed such legislation in the early 2000s that allowed undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public universities and colleges.
The tide is turning
But just a few years later, things began to change.
In 2008, South Carolina became the first state to ban undocumented students altogether from public colleges and universities.
Georgia and Alabama quickly followed suit with similar bans.
In 2012, after Congress created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to allow immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to work, study and stay temporarily in the U.S., some schools in South Carolina briefly barred DACA students from attending public universities — despite the new federal law.
The schools reversed course the following year following a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, but still required DACA students to pay out-of-state tuition.
Until 2015, South Carolina even denied in-state tuition to some US citizens with undocumented parents. The state reversed the policy following a lawsuit.
The trend toward more restrictive policies toward undocumented students has continued under the Trump administration.
In February 2025, Florida passed a law that revoked in-state tuition for undocumented students. Florida still allows undocumented immigrants to enroll in public colleges and universities as long as they pay full tuition.
And over the summer, the Justice Department challenged state tuition policies in Oklahoma and Texas that allowed all undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.
Both states quickly ended their policies.
Texas and Oklahoma still allow DACA recipients to attend public universities and pay in-state tuition.
As of 2025, 22 states and Washington DC allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. Meanwhile, the remaining states either have no state policy, require undocumented immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition, or prohibit them from attending public universities altogether.
A challenging environment
Overall, these changes make it harder for many undocumented students to attend and stay in college.
The price of in-state tuition at public universities varies, but they usually offer in-state residents a much lower tuition rate than out-of-state students. While average in-state tuition at public colleges costs about $11,610 for the 2024-25 school year, out-of-state students paid an average of $30,780 over the same time frame.
Undocumented students don’t qualify for federal financial aid, so paying out-of-state tuition at a public university typically prevents immigrants from pursuing a college degree.
Some research shows that state tuition policies help reduce the dropout rates of undocumented students by about 8 percent.
Statewide tuition policies also increase non-citizen Latino college enrollment by 54 percent.
A bottleneck for students
I began teaching social studies at a high school in South Carolina in 2012, shortly after many of these restrictions on immigrant students were passed. We found that many educators and students were unaware of these restrictions until students applied to colleges or sought state licensure.
My students have included DACA recipients who completed a two-year program in fields such as cosmetology, only to be told they would not be allowed to practice in the state.
My subsequent research focused on DACA students who aspired to become educators but had to either stop pursuing that goal or leave the state to teach. Other immigrant students I interviewed in my research said they lost motivation in the high school classroom because of restrictions on pursuing higher education.
Transfer effects
Policies that facilitate college access for undocumented immigrants not only affect individual students and their families, but also have a positive effect on local economies.
Research from 2025 shows that when undocumented students can pay in-state tuition, they become more likely to be employed after graduation.
Another study from Clemson University and the nonprofit group Hispanic Alliance found that South Carolina could lose up to $68 million a year in revenue because of the licensing policy for DACA recipients.
I have known undocumented people who are aspiring doctors and teachers and moved to other states because they could not study or receive professional licenses in South Carolina.
Restrictive education policies could mean that some of the most talented immigrant students will leave their respective states. However, the average undocumented immigrant student will not typically pursue or delay higher education if tuition is unaffordable.
I believe these policies will ultimately mean a less educated and productive society.
This article is republished by The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization that brings you trusted facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: William McCorkle, College of Charleston
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William McCorkle does not work for, consult with, own stock in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations outside of their academic appointment.