Agustin Guzman sits in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours, crossing an international border just to get to college. But it is worth it. Although he is a resident of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, he pays the same tuition as a student four miles away from Laredo, Texas, thanks to a long-standing state law.

At one point I didn’t believe I could go to college anymore,” said Agustin, 24, a senior at Texas A&M International University. But now I tell people I cross every day that I have to stand on the bridge for three hours to get a diploma. University education.

Soon, some Mexican residents living across from California will have the same opportunity.

Gov. Gavin Newsom

signed on Friday

Assembly Bill 91, inspired in part by a decades-old law in Texas that allows Mexican residents like Agustin to pay tuition for their public education because they live so close to the border. California law allows low-income Mexican residents and citizens living within 45 miles of the Mexico-California border to pay tuition.

The bill allows 150 students from each of the eight partner colleges to receive this “non-resident fee waiver.”

“There are students who may be U.S. citizens but happen to live in the Baja region because of the cost of living,” sponsor Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-Chula Vista) told The Times. “So there are students who are in that situation and don’t have a place to live in California because families can’t afford to live here.”

Alvarez sees the tuition program as an opportunity to strengthen California’s relationship with Mexico and grow its workforce.

“It’s definitely a surprise that California tends to lead in many areas, but in this case that’s not the case,” Alvarez said, noting that Texas has graduated nearly 70,000 students over decades. , and he hopes California can be at the top. the same route. Eligible students must be residents of Mexico and demonstrate some degree of financial need.

In California, the pilot program will last until July 2029. Following a recent bill change, there are now eight eligible community colleges in the San Diego and Imperial Valley region.

That

can admit a maximum of 150 full-time students.

Also as part of the law changes, the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office, which oversees the public school system, must agree on a partner university in Baja California that will grant tuition breaks to any California resident who wants to attend their school.

Other education programs already exist in at least 24 states, including California, which have passed some form of tuition laws that allow Mexican citizens who have lived and attended school in the U.S., usually for at least three years, but are undocumented have, to enable them to pay state tuition fees.

Southern California and California-Baja are considered one mega-region with more than 140,000 daily border crossings. It is also considered the largest integrated economic zone along the U.S.-Mexico border, generating nearly $70 billion in cross-border trade flows, according to a 2022 University of San Diego report.

Expanding affordable education for Mexican citizens has already been implemented in three other border states, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, which want these low-income students who cross the border every day to receive the same tuition as U.S. residents.

We want to make them feel like they are truly part of our community and I hope it will unlock so much of the untapped potential that we see across the border, said Chula Vista Councilmember Andrea Cardenas, born in Tijuana and raised in San Diego County. Because of house prices and inflation, people move across the border, but work here.

Under the new law, students would pay from $307 to $46 per unit. That’s a difference of $1,380 compared to $10,380 per year, according to analysis of the legislation.

Senator Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) who voted against the bill

,

along with five other Republicans, he told the Times he agreed with the concept but opposed the bill for fiscal reasons. He said he wondered whether the bill would take resources away from pre-existing students.

Alvarez assured that no resources would be taken away from students because the law states that each college can allocate funds each year based on the number of students they want to admit into the program.

This bill comes at a time when California community colleges are witnessing historically low enrollment numbers.

Jessica Robinson, president of Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego, was skeptical about whether the bill will have any real impact on the enrollment problem at the state’s community colleges. Many blame the COVID-19 pandemic, but she says community colleges have been experiencing low enrollment for years.

I don’t see this as a way to increase enrollment, but to work with students who live bi-nationally, so incredibly close to our campuses and haven’t been able to take advantage of the opportunity, Robinson said in a telephone interview with the Keer . Last year, she said Cuyamaca saw a 13% spike in enrollment.

Frankly, investing in our Latinx population is critical to reversing the challenging labor shortage we have, not just in San Diego but across our state. The Latinx people are really inclusive to the economy.

Joshua Figueroa, a student at Imperial Valley College and a supporter of the bill, said some students at his school thought the bill was unfair.

“One international student didn’t understand why someone who lived on the other side of the border could get tuition but she couldn’t. In a way, I understood.

But he continued: We live so close to Mexico, but not every student understands that. It is literally the line that prevents them from coming.

Once they graduate, students have a choice: some are citizens or visa holders and can stay in the US. Some, who are not citizens, can apply to work through a visa program. Meanwhile, others may decide to move back to Mexico.

For Agustin, Texas is home. But once he graduates, he plans to return to Nuevo Laredo, where he said he can always count on a smile from his neighbor.