Nevada Taxpayers Foot $100 Million Bill for Illegal Immigrant College Students

One out of every 32 students enrolled in a public university in Nevada is an illegal alien. They have no legal basis for being in this country, but these unlawful students are enjoying their university’s classes, recreational facilities, parties, and sporting events—all of which are subsidized by hardworking Nevada taxpayers.

The Nevada System of Higher Education is quite proud of having so many students who have no legal basis for being in the country. It issued a statement that “reaffirms our strong commitment in support of undocumented and DACAmented students” and declared “We are committed to efforts that support the success and well-being of all our students, regardless of their immigration status.”

(The DACA in “DACAmented” stands for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that the Obama administration created to prevent the government from deporting illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. DACA has been ruled illegal by some courts and is still being contested in others.)

That’s very bold of Nevada’s public universities to be indifferent to the enforcement of immigration laws, especially when that indifference serves their interests by adding about 3,243 students to their total enrollment of about 105,000. But it is Nevada’s taxpayers who have to foot the bill.

Nevada public universities offer illegal immigrant students in-state tuition and provide them financial aid on the same basis as students who are citizens. For example, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas charges students from out of state $28,046, much more than the $9,904 it charges in-state students and illegal immigrants.

The $18,142 discount for in-state students largely comes from taxpayers. The extra charge for out-of-state students recognizes that people from out of state have not paid as much in taxes to Nevada. Of course, the same is true of illegal immigrants, especially if they are paid in cash to evade immigration laws and end up not paying state income taxes.

So, Nevada public universities offer illegal immigrants a financial break that U.S. citizens from other states do not receive. That benefit extended to illegal aliens ends up costing Nevada taxpayers about $59 million per year. Offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens but not to U.S. citizens from other states also violates the 1996 immigration law, but the Biden-Harris administration has refused to enforce this provision, permitting states like Nevada to flaunt the law.

In addition to the taxpayer-funded in-state tuition subsidy, Nevada public universities provided $683.2 million in financial aid in 2022-23. If that aid were distributed in proportion to the percentage of illegal immigrant students attending the schools, that would amount to another $21 million for them. But given that illegal immigrant students are significantly more likely to report fewer assets and lower incomes than other students, they will likely qualify for more aid. Therefore, it is reasonable to estimate that they receive not $21 million, but over $30 million per year in direct financial assistance to attend college, in addition to the $59 million in tuition subsidies.

Between the in-state tuition and full access to financial aid offered to illegal immigrant students, Nevada taxpayers are spending about $100 million per year for these students. In doing so, they are often paying for illegal immigrant students to enjoy a much higher standard of living than the average taxpayer funding their college experiences.

At UNLV, illegal immigrant students can swim at a natatorium with a “shallow water leisure pool with vortex,” a “13-person spa,” and a “gender-inclusive locker room.” The UNLV Student Recreation and Wellness Center also offers “outdoor adventures trips and equipment rentals,” “climbing elements,” “massage chairs,” and “a team of clinicians … who promote physical, emotional, spiritual, social, occupational, environmental, and intellectual well-being.”

In addition to these taxpayer-subsidized luxuries, UNLV offers 576 student organizations. Illegal alien students can become active in the #BlackLivesMatter club to “get involved with their efforts for social justice,” the If/When/How–Lawyering for Reproductive Justice club to help people “actualize sexual and reproductive well-being on their own terms,” or the Students for Justice in Palestine club that’s “dedicated to advancing the cause for Palestinian justice and liberation.”

According to the Nevada System of Higher Education, it is worth having taxpayers fork over almost $100 million each year so that illegal alien students can enjoy all of these wonders of higher education because, as they put it, “undocumented students are making positive economic, cultural, and scholarly impacts on our communities.”

Even if illegal alien students do go on to make positive contributions, that does not consider what taxpayers might have been able to accomplish for themselves and their communities if they had been able to keep that $100 million. They could have started new businesses, hired more employees, paid for a better education for their own children, or donated to their local church.

The injustice of having 1 out of every 32 students in Nevada public universities be an illegal alien and having their educational costs subsidized by taxpayers is that it treats the ambitions of those who have no legal reason to be in the country as more worthy than the hopes and dreams of Nevada citizens who have to pay for it.

Nevada, like the rest of the U.S., should be a welcoming place to those who legally enter the country, but it should not subordinate the interests and needs of its own citizens for those who break the law to come here.

Jay Greene is a senior research fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal – By Jay Greene

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.