Phil Murphy signs bill extending financial aid to undocumented immigrants in New Jersey

New Jersey’s undocumented immigrants will be able to apply for state financial aid to help pay for college starting this fall under a bill that Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law on Wednesday. 

Murphy signed the bill shortly after noon to cheers and applause at a ceremony at Rutgers University in Newark. The move makes New Jersey the 10th state to extend financial aid to undocumented college students, joining California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, New Mexico, Hawaii and Connecticut, where Gov. Daniel P. Malloy, a Democrat, signed the state’s law late last month. 

Murphy had pledged during his campaign last year that he would support a measure to extend financial aid to “Dreamers,” the term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. The measure he signed into law on Wednesday is broader, extending eligibility for financial assistance to all undocumented students residing in the state. 

Before signing the bill, Murphy said “Dreamers” are as American as his four children.

“Today our ‘Dreamers’ will be eligible to receive state aid to go to college,” he said. After applying his signature, he added: “This bill is the law of the land.”

Among those who attended the bill signing at Rutgers University in Newark was Karen Correa, 19, of Passaic who is graduating from Essex County College next month with a degree in environmental science. She had been accepted to Rutgers but could not afford the tuition because she was ineligible to apply for financial aid. Instead, she enrolled at the county college, which awarded her scholarships covering her full tuition.

“Students are going to have the chance to continue their education,” she said before the Murphy signed the bill. “For a lot of years, a lot of students weren’t able to go to college or continue their education because of financial struggles.”  

The New Jersey law, which the state Senate and Assembly overwhelmingly approved, mostly along party lines, extends financial aid to undocumented students in New Jersey who are living in the country illegally, as long as they meet certain requirements.

More: Financial aid may grow for undocumented students: These NJ schools enroll the most

Tuition assistance: Assembly approves measure to offer financial aid to undocumented students

Refugees: Syrian families sue landlord, Paterson over housing conditions

The aid programs are administered by the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority or the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education. Funds that will be available to students under the new law include the Tuition Aid Grant program, known as TAG. 

Critics have said the measure is not economically feasible, and that any money available to help students pay for college should be doled out to those who are living in the country legally. 

“This new law is fundamentally wrong for our citizens and taxpayers,” Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, said in a statement that was issued by the Assembly Republicans. “In the Assembly and now, I stand in defense of a basic belief: that citizens of the United States should be treated as well or better than non-citizens who happen to be in our country.”

The law expands a measure known as the Tuition Equality Act that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state resident tuition rates at New Jersey’s public colleges and universities. Gov. Chris Christie, who signed that bill in 2013, vetoed the financial aid component of the law.  

Supporters of the tuition equality bill said at the time that they would make another attempt at the financial assistance component when the next governor was in office. Murphy said during his campaign last year that he would support a measure to extend financial aid to “Dreamers,” the term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. 

How much will law cost?

The state does not keep track of how many immigrants living in the country illegally are enrolled at colleges, but in recent weeks the Office of Legislative Services asked all of the state’s four-year public colleges how many students were paying in-state tuition under the Tuition Equality Act. The nine schools that responded reported that a total of 759 students were enrolled and paying in-state tuition. William Paterson University in Wayne declined to answer, and Rowan University in Glassboro said the school doesn’t ask students if they are citizens.

That figure is larger than one that was included in a previous fiscal analysis of the Senate financial aid bill conducted by the Office of Legislative Services, which estimated that the state would have to allocate an additional $4.47 million to provide Tuition Aid Grants to 600 newly eligible students. That report noted that the state set aside $425.9 million for the grants in the current fiscal year.

Community colleges, which also enroll undocumented students, were not surveyed. Larry Hlavenka Jr., a spokesman for Bergen Community College, said the school does not track undocumented students and that it bases tuition on where students reside. 

New Jersey is home to about 17,400 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children and who benefit from an Obama-era federal program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that provides them with Social Security numbers and two-year renewable work permits. Although the program, known as DACA, does not provide legal status, it does protect those undocumented immigrants from deportation.  

President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded DACA, but two federal judges have since blocked the administration from ending the program. DACA recipients can still renew their two-year work permits, but younger immigrants are no longer able to apply as they reach the age of 15. 

DACA recipients will be among those who could qualify for financial aid under the state bill.

Who would be eligible?

To be eligible for financial aid under the bill, applicants must demonstrate financial need by submitting their parents’ income tax information. 

They must also have attended high school in New Jersey for three or more years, have graduated from a New Jersey high school or received the equivalent of a high school diploma, and be enrolled in a college or university in the state. 

Undocumented students must also file an affidavit with their school stating they will file an application to legalize their immigration status or will file an application as soon as they are eligible to do so. 

“It’s a good step. I wish I would have had it when I first started to go to college, and then I would have been able to start Rutgers earlier, but I’m happy it’s being done,” said Alexis Torres Machado, 22, a third-year theater major at Rutgers University in Newark. 

Torres Machado said he went to Essex County College after graduating from high school and paid his tuition out of pocket. He said he then took two years off before enrolling at Rutgers, where he eventually was able to secure a scholarship that covers his entire tuition. 

Correa, of Passaic, said she plans to attend a four-year college next year and is awaiting responses from several schools before she decides where she will go. Her top choice, she said, is Colorado College in Colorado Springs, a private liberal arts college where she wants to major in organismal biology and ecology, but she has also applied to Kean University and Princeton University. Depending on the financial aid and scholarship packages she receives, she said she might be swayed to continue her studies in New Jersey. 

Juan Garcia of Elizabeth, who attended the signing ceremony, said he waits tables to pay for his tuition and books at New Jersey City University. He said his mother helps him, too, but he has often had to rely on his credit card to pay his school-related expenses.

“I work really hard to pay the gap,” said Garcia, who was born in Colombia. “With aid, I would use my money to pay for books instead of using my credit card.”

Gabriela Trevino, 19,  a DACA recipient from Haledon, said she notified all of her friends who could benefit from the law once she heard Murphy planned to sign it. Some of them, she said, are attending school part-time because they can’t afford to go full-time.  

“They were surprised, and most were excited,” she said, “and I know a few who didn’t think they could pay for college.” 

Trevino attends William Paterson University, where she is completing her second year as an accounting major. Scholarships cover her entire tuition, but she said she has to apply for them every year. 

“So that will determine whether I apply for financial aid,” she said. 

Is New Jersey prepared for the law?

David J. Socolow, executive director of the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, said during a Senate budget hearing in Trenton last month that the agency had been preparing to implement the new law. He said agency officials had been looking at how California has run its program, and were looking to offer a state version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, that the undocumented students would be able to fill out. 

 “In terms of thinking about the way we would schedule all of the processes, the deadline for FAFSA completion for enrollees for the next school year is Sept. 15. Depending on when this bill becomes law, we would have enough time to get that under way,” he said.  

Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2ry5GoE