Community College Fee Hike Hits Illegal Immigrants

With her solid B average and her determination to better herself, Veronica would do very well at a community college after she graduates next month, says her counselor at Los Angeles’ Jefferson High School.

But Veronica--who came to this country alone three years ago--is an illegal immigrant, and a new fees policy has put this most accessible of California’s three branches of higher education beyond her reach.

Spurred by a court ruling against the University of California, the state’s 107 community colleges this semester began assessing new undocumented students the considerably higher fees charged those who are not California residents. Residents who are full-time students pay $60 a semester statewide, but others are charged tuition that averages $1,320 per semester.

The decision has been particularly unpopular at community colleges, which count an estimated 14,000 illegal immigrants among their more than 1.5 million students statewide. For many students, the community colleges provide career training or serve as a steppingstone to the four-year degrees offered at UC and the California State University systems.

As the debate over whether illegal immigrants should be required to pay the higher fees is played out in the courts and the Legislature, many educators and activists are doing all they legally can to see that the students continue to get an affordable crack at college.

Herman Lee, director of admissions and records at Palomar College in San Diego County, said many of the students’ families have worked, paid taxes and otherwise contributed to the state’s economy for years.

“Many parents have been members of the community, rented houses and bought groceries here but have not gone through INS documentation, and because of this their children are slapped with non-resident fees,” Lee said.

Judith Valles, president of Golden West Community College in Huntington Beach and the daughter of a migrant farm worker, said the new fees policy is both shortsighted and unjust.

“These are the people who clean your houses, wash your cars and work in your kitchens,” said Valles. “They do all the jobs that no one else wants to do. And we tell them, ‘You can do all that but you can’t attend our community colleges.’ ”

But those who helped bring about the new policy say it is wrong for people who are here illegally to get the same cost break as legal residents at the state’s increasingly crowded and financially strapped public colleges and universities.

David Bradford, a former UCLA employee whose lawsuit led to the higher-fees policy, said after a court ruling in his favor two years ago that letting illegal immigrants pay the lower rates cheated U.S. citizens and legally admitted foreign students out of classroom space, housing, financial aid and other benefits.

“It is discriminatory against people who are here legally . . . that deserve it,” said Bradford, who got support in his court battle from the conservative, Santa Monica-based Assn. of American Women’s Citizenship Protection Fund.

Since 1985, illegal immigrants who could demonstrate they had lived in California for at least a year and intended to stay were treated the same as other residents for tuition purposes. The policy was based on an Alameda County Superior Court ruling in a case--popularly known as Leticia A.--involving the 20-campus California State University. After the court issued an injunction ordering Cal State to charge illegal immigrants the lower fees, the University of California and the California Community Colleges followed suit.

But a year later, Bradford, who had been in charge of determining legal residency of student applicants at UCLA, sued UC, challenging the policy and claiming his deep disagreement with it had caused him to resign his post. In May, 1990, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffee ruled that illegal immigrant students should not be considered California residents in calculating their college costs.

UC appealed but lost, and both UC and the community colleges changed their policies to conform to the Bradford decision. Cal State officials decided to wait until they could get a clarifying ruling from the court that issued the 1985 injunction. That ruling is expected any day.

Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), has introduced a bill that would leave the determination of a residency policy to individual campuses. It also would enable illegal residents to qualify for the state-financed scholarships known as Cal grants. The measure unanimously cleared the Assembly Ways and Means Committee last week and will be scheduled for a vote by the full Assembly soon. Advocates of the bill, however, acknowledge it will be tough to win the approval of both the Legislature and the governor.

Wilson, in vetoing earlier legislation that would have enabled illegal immigrant students to be treated as other residents, noted that federal law “forbids undocumented aliens entry into our country, and authorizes their arrest and deportation.” The governor said that giving the undocumented a break on college fees also would be inconsistent with California law, which denies them such privileges as voting, working and receiving public assistance.

But those who oppose the Bradford decision say it will be far more costly in the long run to deny an education to such a large group.

“It’s not right,” said Ronald Jackson, acting vice president of student services at Oxnard College in Ventura County, who estimated that about 600 of the college’s 6,000 students are undocumented. “How many of these people are going to be able to pay? . . . The cost is substantial.”

“I would like (policy-makers) to look at the kids coming out of our high school system. Let’s give them a chance,” said Irma Rodriguez, dean of admissions for Fullerton College in Orange County, who is trying to organize a scholarship drive to benefit undocumented students, nearly all of whom cannot afford the higher rates.

“These are the ones who will be our future work force.”

Ann Reed, spokeswoman for the California Community Colleges, acknowledged the new policy is highly unpopular on most campuses but said the Board of Governors and its legal counsel felt they had no choice but to implement it.

“I understand the hearts of our faculties; I understand their commitment to education,” Reed said. “Because of the nature of our colleges (to admit everyone who can benefit from a college course) and what our commitment is, people who come to us want to improve themselves and their position in society. . . . That is the very core of what we are about.”

Officials say it may take at least another school year before the colleges begin to feel the impact of the new policy. That is in large part because sympathetic high school counselors and community college faculty members throughout California last winter steered hundreds of undocumented high school students into college classes before the higher fees took effect. Those students will pay the lower resident fees as long as they continue their schooling.

Arnulfo Casillas, a counselor at Glendale Community College and a leader in a broad coalition working to reverse the higher-fees policy, said many colleges opened extra sections of college-orientation classes to help high school students enroll early. The classes were offered on Saturdays and after school, and some faculty members taught them without pay if college budgets were too tight.

The response was heartening, Casillas said, ticking off the numbers of students drawn to the courses--about 2,600, including more nearly 1,000 in the Los Angeles Community College District.

But Casillas realizes that many more students will be subject to the out-of-state tuition charges if the policy is not changed. “We’ll have a lot of very intelligent, uneducated and frustrated people by the turn of the century,” Casillas said.

One of those may well be Jefferson High’s Veronica. She works after school and on weekends to support herself and was unable to squeeze in the needed course at nearby Los Angeles Trade Technical College, so she is out of luck.

“She’s a desperate case,” said Virda Chappell, the school’s college counselor. “She has no money; she has nothing except her desire (for an education) and her willingness to work hard.”

Times staff writers Lisa R. Omphroy in San Diego County, Tina Daunt in Ventura County and Kristina Lindgren in Orange County contributed to this report.