Hector Salamanca Arroyo placed his Drake University diploma on the table in front of him and told lawmakers he remembers nervously stressing about whether he would qualify for in-state tuition as an 18-year-old more than a decade ago.
Arroyo, who was undocumented at the time, did receive in-state tuition and studied criminal justice at Des Moines Area Community College before transferring to Drake, where he graduated with honors in 2015. Qualifying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed him to work legally in the country so he could pay for his education, he said.
“My educational journey all started by qualifying for in-state tuition,” he said.
Arroyo was speaking out Monday against a bill in the Iowa House that would ban undocumented students from qualifying for in-state tuition at Iowa’s three public universities and 15 community colleges.
House File 2128 would require Iowa’s regents universities and community colleges to adopt rules specifying that students must be either U.S. citizens or lawfully present in the country to receive in-state tuition.