The president of the University of Arizona student body reportedly wants to give illegals scholarships — and they may not care if a state law forbids them from doing so, Campus Reform reports.
Matt Lubisich, was quoted in The Daily Wildcat saying that he is “trying to find ways around” the state law that will allow the university to provide funding to illegal students who are considered eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“There are some state laws that kind of prohibit this, and we’re trying to find ways to work around it, because we know that ASU [Arizona State University] does it,” he was quoted as claiming in the story, citing all the problems that illegal students face because they “have no access to federal aid, grants…anything like that. Lubisich says the illegals are pleading with him to “carry the torch with them to make this possible.”
Carrying a torch or not, Arizona state law explicitly denies illegal students or those lacking “lawful immigration status” from having he same rights and privileges as in-state students: specifically they are not supposed to have access to special tuition rates or financial assistance “that is subsidized or paid in whole or in part” by state taxpayers.
Lubisich is now denying he said any of this, telling Campus Reform that he was misquoted by The Daily Wildcat cannot account for why the statement regarding “working around” state law was attributed to him.
The Daily Wildcat has not excised the quotation from their online edition.
As for suggestions that Arizona State University is already providing scholarships to illegal students, the institution did not respond to queries from Camus Reform. The Arizona Republic has reported that ASU was compelled to take back at least one “full-ride scholarship” from at least one DACA student last year when his immigration status was revealed to disqualify him from receiving the assistance.
