Immigrants sue Georgia over college access

Three undocumented immigrant students are taking Georgia officials to court, claiming the officials are breaking federal law by refusing to grant them admission to the top public universities in the state even though the students are enrolled in the deferred action program that protects them from being deported.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was started  in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in accordance with executive orders issued by President Barack Obama. The program enables undocumented immigrants who were children when they arrived in the U.S., and who are either going to school or have graduated from school, to legally apply to live in the country and to legally apply for work permits and driver’s licenses.

As of March 31, over 800,000 undocumented immigrants had been accepted into the program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Elly Marisol Estrada, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, graduated from high school in Georgia and currently attends Savannah’s Armstrong State University. Estrada claims that the University System of Georgia and its board of regents have adopted a policy of banning undocumented immigrants, even those covered by the deferred action program, from being able to apply for admission to their “most selective schools,” which she claims is unconstitutional.

Estrada and the other two plaintiffs want an injunction to prevent higher education officials in Georgia from barring undocumented immigrants who are covered by DACA from being admitted to public universities in the state.