Immigrants without legal resident status living in Kansas have had the opportunity to receive in-state tuition at public higher education institutions, but a bill may revoke that benefit. Kansas Senate Bill 254 would bar these individuals from receiving public benefits including in-state tuition, and it has passed by both the Senate and House after reentering the legislature this session. 

The bill has gone to a committee that will resolve the differences between the House and Senate’s versions. 

Often bills have multiple differences that need to be reconciled, but Kansas SB 254 just has one. 

The bill states that individuals 18 and older applying to receive any state or local public benefits must provide proof that the “individual applicant is: (A) A citizen or a permanent resident of the United States; or (B) an alien who is lawfully present in the United States.” 

To prove status, individuals can use the same documents needed to obtain a Kansas driver’s license or “any document issued by the federal government that confirms an alien’s lawful presence in the United States.” 

Currently in Kansas, undocumented immigrants who attended a Kansas high school and have not been convicted of a felony can qualify for in-state tuition as a “public benefit.”

If SB 254 passes, this benefit would be revoked by the Senate.

The House, however, added an amendment to the bill that would exclude the in-state tuition benefit from what it defined as state public benefits. 

“The one benefit is for universities — for the students who benefit from that in-state tuition for undocumented persons,” Zach Gearhart, Wichita State’s chief of staff said in a recent Legislative Update. “… We have, I think, just north of 50 students in that program.” 

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach recently said that Kansas’ current allowance of undocumented individuals to receive in-state tuition is in conflict with federal law, which may affect the outcome of SB 254’s revision

“(Kobach) didn’t say it was in response to this bill being under consideration, but I think the legislature is feeling some pressure that they need to consider how this law compares to that opinion,” Gearhart said.