By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
The question of how much it will cost “dreamers” to get a higher education in Arizona could turn on who the state Supreme Court decides is in this country with “lawful immigration status.”
In new legal filings, the attorney for the Maricopa community colleges told the justices that phrase is the same as “lawful presence.” Mary O’Grady said those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program fit that definition because the Department of Homeland Security has — at least for the moment — allowed them to not only remain without fear of deportation but also to work.
But Attorney General Mark Brnovich, in his own new legal briefs, contends that acceptance into the DACA program does not translate into being in this country legally.
All that is important because Proposition 300, approved by voters in 2006, specifically says that anyone who is not a citizen or legal resident or who is “without lawful immigration status is not entitled to classification as an in-state student.”
