The first major payment deadline to confirm fall attendance was Aug. 14, but some non-citizen students who previously qualified for in-state tuition, state financial aid, or both, under the Texas Dream Act say there is limited clarity on the new process of reviewing their immigration documentation.
After a federal judge struck down the Texas Dream Act in June, higher education institutions were instructed to develop their own systems to identify students who were “unlawfully present” and no longer qualify for in-state tuition and/or state financial aid.
At UT, letters to students requesting documentation of “lawful presence” were sent in two waves: first on July 11 to approximately 950 students and again on July 22 to nearly 200 students, just two days prior to the deadline of July 24, according to public records obtained by The Texan. Students were instructed to either resubmit a Texas residency questionnaire or submit documentation through UT Box, a secure file-sharing service.
The University communication to students cited a U.S. passport, permanent resident card or a current visa as “documents that may demonstrate lawful status,” but also included the term “lawful presence.” These are two different concepts, wrote Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, a non-profit organization providing legal services to low-income immigrants, in an email.
“The (UT) email uses both terms, and it may be that someone who is lawfully present can complete the needed affidavit, especially if they are going through a process to obtain their (lawful permanent residency) status, and get in-state tuition,” Yang wrote.
The Texas Department of Public Safety defines “lawful presence” as the legal authorization to reside in the U.S. “Lawful status” refers to the specific immigration benefit a person has and is usually designated through an I-94 form, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. According to the Texas Immigration Law Council, “lawful presence” is a broader concept that can encompass more immigration categories than lawful status.
As of July 24, the residency office received approximately 500 residency questionnaires and 350 documents for review. Residency decisions were completed for 192 students, but it is unclear whether all impacted students have received notification of their residency status at the time of writing.
Psychology senior Nidhi Chanchlani said she graduated from a Texas high school and came to UT on an H-4 visa, meant for dependent children of foreign workers in the United States. She turns 21 around the start of the fall semester and applied for an F-1 visa, meant for students, to ensure she could switch to her new status prior to the H-4 visa expiration to meet age requirements.
After receiving the email requesting documentation of lawful presence last month, Chanchlani said she was classified as a non-resident, with little explanation from Texas One Stop. While her residency status was changed back to in-state on Aug. 13, Chanchlani said she still needed to meet the Aug. 14 deadline.
“Whether it’s immigration or financial aid, nothing that allows students to be at UT is ever black and white,” Chanchlani said. “The reality is that students at UT are a diaspora, not in a cultural sense, but in a socio-economic, immigration sense. UT as an institution consistently treats its student body as if they are a dichotomy, as if its students very neatly fit into one of two categories.”
