On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a California law that grants undocumented immigrants equal access to in-state tuition rates at public universities. The 2001 California law requires that these students attend a California high school for three years, graduate, and swear they will pursue legal citizenship.

The challenge came from a group of out-of-state students who sued the state of California on the basis that its tuition policy favors undocumented students over legal residents from other states. Non-California residents can pay as much as five times the tuition to attend in-state universities.
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Arizona is at it again; this time, taking construction of the border fence into its own hands. Arizona lawmakers are set to “complete that danged fence” with private money as Governor Janet Brewer signed into law Senate Bill 1406 on Monday, May 2. The law allows for the state to raise private funds online to build a fence on the Arizona-Mexico border.

This is not the first time Arizona has sought private funds to support its immigration agenda. To defend the controversial SB 1070, Arizona has already raised $3.7 million to pay for legal fees through www.keepAZsafe.com.

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The Obama Administration scored another victory over punitive immigration legislation on Monday when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge’s decision blocking major provisions of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070.

A three-judge panel split two to one in favor of the federal government on the grounds that SB 1070 conflicts with federal law and adversely affects U.S. foreign relations—namely with Mexico, as President Calderón has spoken out repeatedly against a law he saw targeted his country’s citizens. As soon as the ruling was announced, Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhan tweeted “[w]e welcome the US Ninth Circuit’s court ruling on AZ SB1070 reaffirming full authority of the Federal (Government) in enforcing immigration law.”

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