Reeves Preps Repeal of Law Granting In-State Tuition, Financial Aid Regardless of Immigration Status

State Senator Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) is drafting legislation to repeal a 2021 bill that made college students eligible for state financial aid regardless of immigration status.

“We are in the midst of a higher education cost crisis caused by the federal government’s continued involvement in the student loan process,” Reeves said in a press release. “To think that we would prioritize students that are here illegally over our country’s own citizens is astounding. All this does is decrease the pool of scholarships and funds available to law-abiding U.S. citizens who reside in Virginia, worsening the issues that our youth face today when it comes to the accessibility of higher education. To support this legislation would feel like turning my back on my constituents. I am committed to repealing this unethical, irresponsible law.”

State Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax) and Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington) sponsored the twin bills SB 1387 and HB 2123 in 2021, but the legislation did not take effect until August 2022. In 2020, Delegate Kaye Kory (D-Fairfax) introduced legislation that said a student couldn’t be ineligible for in-state tuition based solely on their parents’ immigration status.

In January 2021, Lopez told the House of Delegates that his bill built on work from the year before, making sure that students who are eligible for in-state tuition also received educational benefits and financial aid regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.

“Students would have to meet the same criteria as they would for in-state tuition: they would need to have graduated from high school in Virginia since June of 2008 and they, or their parents would have been required to have paid at least two years of state taxes,” he said…. (Excerpt from The Virginia Star)