Undocumented College Students, Taxation, and Financial Aid: A Technical Note

A surprising amount of litigation and legislation has erupted over undocumented college students. Victims at the federal level are the DREAM Act and immigration reform. Financial aid raises technical issues for undocumented college applicants and for the citizen children of undocumented parents. Generally, the undocumented are ineligible for federal financial aid and nearly always for state aid. Even citizen college applicants face technical and administrative problems in negotiating the complex financial aid application process. The undocumented are trapped by imprecise definitions and applications of immigration categories among financial aid regulation, statutory immigration terms, and Internal Revenue Code provisions.