Under existing U.S. law, federal student loans are generally only available to U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens, which typically includes lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and certain other categories of non-citizens, such as refugees and those granted asylum. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal student loans.

Almost half of all states allow undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. These policies are often based on the student meeting certain criteria, such as attending and graduating from a high school in the state. But again, they’re not qualifying these students for federal student loans, just offering them in-state tuition rates. Those students must find some other way of paying for college.

Denying access to federal student loans to students at schools with these policies is unnecessarily punitive to ordinary students of those schools who are U.S. citizens.

Full contextual analysis of Section 2.2: Department of Homeland Security here.