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For Diana Sanroman-Espinosa, the difference between attending the University of Delaware as a student with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and attending as a lawful permanent resident came down to thousands of dollars.
Her family paid over $10,000 out of pocket for her first semester at UD, she said. After she obtained permanent residency, she became eligible for financial aid and scholarships, bringing her out-of-pocket cost down to about $200 for a semester.
Now a graduate student at UD, Sanroman-Espinosa is watching as the university faces a legal challenge from the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Justice over its tuition policies for students without lawful immigration status.
On Oct. 1, the DOJ filed a complaint against UD, arguing that the university’s student residency classification policy allows some students without lawful immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition, while denying the same benefit to U.S. citizens from other states. The department characterizes the policy as unequal treatment favoring undocumented students.
UD said it is reviewing the complaint and declined to comment further because the matter is pending.
The case comes amid a broader Trump administration effort to challenge state policies that allow certain students without lawful immigration status to pay in-state tuition rates. The dispute raises questions about how colleges determine residency for tuition purposes, who can qualify for those rates and what the financial consequences could be for students if the policies are restricted.
Dominique Baker, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, said residency policies can apply to a broader range of students than the debate over undocumented students might suggest.
“It’s a set of policies that say ‘who are people who can qualify for the in-state tuition rate.’ It’s really important to say that, because people often think that that means that this is only talking about undocumented students. That could not be further from the truth,” Baker said. “In-state resident tuition policies are a set of conditions that people can meet to get the in-state tuition rate.”
These policies can account for circumstances beyond a student’s immigration status. Baker pointed to military families as one example, explaining that in Virginia, children of active-duty service members whose parents file taxes in the state may qualify for in-state tuition.
“If you are the child of an active-duty service member and your parent files taxes in the state of Virginia, as an example, then you can qualify for in-state resident tuition,” Baker said. “That is really popular in the state of Virginia, in part because there is such a large military presence.”
Baker said residency policies can help colleges fulfill their public mission by making higher education more affordable for the people they serve. Limiting access could lead some students to delay college, choose a different educational path or decide not to enroll at all.
Sanroman-Espinosa came to the United States from Mexico at age 2 and later completed her primary education in the U.S. She attended UD for her first semester as a DACA recipient before obtaining permanent residency the following spring.
When she began applying to college, she said she didn’t realize her immigration status would complicate the process. During an application meeting with her high school guidance counselor, she encountered an error related to her Social Security number.
“I was like, ‘It is valid, I got it through DACA,’” she recalled. “And counselors were like, ‘Oh, DACA students have to apply to college differently. Well, we’ve never done that, so you’re kind of on your own.’”
Her teachers stepped in to help, taking time away from school to accompany her to UD offices. Sanroman-Espinosa had earned a 4.2 GPA and ranked among the top students in her graduating class. Still, she wasn’t sure if she could afford higher education at all.
“I was a straight-A student, I was top 20 of my class, I was an honor student,” she said. “It was just insane to them that because of my legal status, I wasn’t able to go to college when I had all these other criterias that would basically [make] me a perfect student to go to college. But because of my legal status, I wasn’t allowed to.”
After several meetings with university staff, Sanroman-Espinosa said she was initially told she would be classified as an international student. She eventually learned about another program, “First State Promise,” which allowed her to pay the in-state tuition rate. However, the program did not provide the financial aid she needed.
“That just makes tuition be the same price as being an in-state student,” she said. “Other than that, no scholarships were allowed.” She said she wasn’t able to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA as a DACA student.
Her family paid about $10,000 out of pocket for her first semester. Her parents used savings to help cover the cost, and she recalled that her mother even had sold her car.
“I sacrificed a lot of my personal time to make sure that I didn’t miss those deadlines,” she said.
During her first semester, Sanroman-Espinosa left the country for about a month to complete the process that led to her permanent residency. She described the experience as one of the most traumatic periods of her life, explaining that she traveled with her brother to a part of Mexico where neither had family nearby to support them.
After returning to Delaware, she notified university staff that her immigration status had changed. The following semester, she qualified for merit-based scholarships and submitted the FAFSA successfully. Sanroman-Espinosa remembers checking her student account and realizing that her out-of-pocket cost had dropped from thousands to hundreds.
“I stayed the same student from the fall semester to the spring semester,” she said. “The only thing that changed was my legal status and that made a huge difference in the financial aid I got.” She said it was because she “qualified for all these merit-based scholarships.”
