New tuition policies make college affordable for immigrants

Published: 2004-12-30

GEORGETOWN, Del. (CNS) -- Samuel Juarez likes history, drawing and, most of all, reading books, everything from Cervantes to Stephen King. He wanted to go to college. But when he graduated from Indian River High School in 2002 it seemed that college was beyond his grasp. His family could not help pay the tuition, and Juarez spent hours in a futile search for financial aid. He went to work pouring concrete and saved what he could. He hoped to earn an associate's degree from Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown, one course at a time. It took him two years to save enough for his first course. Then this fall something happened that makes paying for college much easier for Juarez. "I walked into DelTech to register and it was almost like a miracle," he said. Delaware Tech had just joined the growing number of public colleges and universities, including the University of Delaware, that now admit academically qualified illegal immigrants for the same lower tuition paid by U.S. citizens who are legal residents of Delaware.

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