By Melissa Hayes and Monsy Alvarado, Staff Writers, The Record
For the first time since Governor Christie signed legislation allowing New Jersey residents who are in the U.S. without legal permission to pay in-state college tuition rates, Rutgers University is hosting a forum aimed at helping them get a college degree.
The forum in Newark on Saturday spotlights a decision Christie made in 2013 to sign that law, attention that comes as he prepares a possible presidential run in a Republican primary where support for immigration reform could become an issue.
“The state of New Jersey has created pathways for these students to attend college and what we are doing is trying to simply make the information available to them about what those pathways are,” said Peter Englot, senior vice chancellor for public affairs at Rutgers-Newark.
New Jersey is home to about 528,000 unauthorized immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The institute, in a report released last month, estimated that of those residents, 75,000 are between the ages of 18 to 24 and about 20,000 of them are enrolled in school.
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