Rhode Island will begin offering in-state tuition fees at public colleges and universities for undocumented immigrant students next year, according to a measure approved Monday night by the state’s Board of Governors for Higher Education. This measure will significantly decrease the financial barriers undocumented immigrant students face in accessing higher education, while also enabling them to reach their full potential and contribute to economic growth in their state.

In-state tuition fees in Rhode Island are markedly lower than out-of-state fees. At the University of Rhode Island, for example, out-of-state tuition is $27,262, compared to the $10,556 that in-state students pay; at Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island, the numbers are $16,878 and $6,986, and $9,792 and $3,652, respectively. To be eligible, students who immigrated to the U.S. illegally must have attended high school in Rhode Island for at least three years, graduated or obtained an equivalent degree, and signed an affidavit saying they will pursue citizenship as soon as possible. (more…)

In a sign of the U.S. government’s shifting positions on same-sex marriage and deportation policies, and a further entanglement in the growing web of conflicting federal and state policies, federal officials have dropped deportation proceedings against Henry Velandia, a Venezuelan immigrant married to an American man, the couple’s lawyer said yesterday.

Velandia, 27, of Princeton, New Jersey, immigrated to the U.S. in 2002 and legally married Josh Vandiver, a Princeton graduate student, last year in Connecticut. However, he was denied legal residency as Vandiver’s spouse under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the Obama administration has said it will not defend in court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, but will continue to enforce.
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Immigrants in the United States are integrating into local communities, although at uneven rates and without the help of specific policy interventions. This is the conclusion of a report released this week by the Migration Policy Institute. As measured by five main indicators of integration—language proficiency, socioeconomic attainment, political participation, residential locale, and social interaction with host communities—the report finds that Latino immigrants’ integration has improved dramatically across generations, but have nonetheless fared less well than their Asian, black and non-Hispanic white counterparts.

In his introduction to the report, author Tomás R. Jiménez notes that the integration of immigrants has long been a cornerstone of American identity and the American economy. The five indicators described above not only contribute to immigrants’ sense of national identity and their socioeconomic mobility, they also promote social cohesion, economic growth, and robust participatory democracy overall.

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