Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference Statement on Tuition Relief for Undocumented Students at Public Universities

August 22, 2019

The Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference (ACC) applaud today’s action by the Board of Regents that will provide tuition relief for more Arizona high school graduates who are undocumented immigrants and are seeking to enroll in our public universities.

Today’s action allows these students, as well as other Arizona high school graduates who have left the state, to join immigrant students who are in the DACA program and pay a much lower tuition rate that reflects the actual costs at our public universities. Practically speaking, this new tuition rate is substantially lower than out-of-state tuition, but remains higher than in-state tuition, which is prohibited under Arizona law.

This past legislative session the ACC was supportive of legislation that would have had a similar positive impact, but it was unfortunately not able to advance. With today’s development, however, we are glad that these undocumented students, who were brought here through no fault of their own, will now have more opportunities to better their lives after they graduate from our high schools and eventually become productive members of our society.

Most Rev. Edward J. Weisenburger
Bishop of Tucson

Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop of Phoenix

Most Rev. Eduardo A. Nevares
Auxiliary Bishop of Phoenix

Most Rev. James S. Wall
Bishop of Gallup