XPost: misc.immigration.usa, talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc
XPost: alt.society.liberalism, soc.culture.usa, sac.politics

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday that will allow
some students living in Mexico near the border to receive in-state
tuition at certain community colleges, his administration confirmed
on its website.

The bill was one of many listed in a "legislative update" news
release. "Governor Gavin Newsom took his final actions of the 2023
legislative season today," the Friday release said. "The desk is
clear."

The bill, introduced by Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego,
affects low-income students living within 45 minutes of the
California border.

"There are students who might actually be U.S. citizens but happen
to be living in the Baja region because of the cost of living,"
Alvarez told The Los Angeles Times. "So there are some students who
find themselves in that situation who don’t have a California
residence because families can’t afford to live here."

The California bill took a note from a decades-old Texas law,
allowing students living near its border to also waive nonresident
tuition.

"At some point, I stopped believing I could go to college," Agustin
Guzman, who attends Texas A&M International University, in Laredo,
Texas, while living in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, told The Times. "But
now, I tell people that I cross every day — that I do three hours on
the bridge just to get a college education."

Under the California law, 150 students at the eight partner
community colleges — all in San Diego and the Imperial Valley — will
get a "nonresident fee exemption."

Alvarez noted that "California tends to lead" the nation on many
issues, but in this area Texas was ahead of curve, having graduated
more than 70,000 students through the program so far, The Times
reported.

"It definitely is a surprise," he said of the Texas having signed
the law so long before California.

The California pilot program will start next year and run until
2029.

State Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said he agrees with the bill’s intentions but was one of five Republicans who voted against it for
"fiscal reasons."

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