
The term AB 540 Student is a politically correct term for students that are illegal immigrants or one without papers. When AB 540 was passed into law in 2001, it opened CSUs and UCs to illegal aliens by offering tuition at in state prices and into an already overcrowded college system in which they effectively and justly have no place.
Fast forward to 2009 about 600 students are estimated to be AB 540 students at Long Beach State. There is talk of cutting classes and admission which is all quite unfortunate.
In regards to admission why not just do away with AB 540 students? Currently AB 540 students are not elgible for federal financial aid which is great, but with the Dream Act on the horizon that may change in the near future. American Citizens are entitled to the public education system as a citizen or legal resident, your parents or guardians most likely paid into the tax system so legal residents should be entitled to education before illegal aliens regardless of merit.
Now this may sound harsh but illegal alines and their anchor babies are not only destroying our state but our education system. If there were state surplus then one could justify financing illegal aliens and looking the other way.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) examines the costs of education, health care and incarceration of illegal aliens, and concludes that the costs to Californians is $10.5 billion per year. 7.7 billion dollars goto the education of illegal aliens and 1.4 million goes to healthcare and incarceration of illegals. these numbers are just general expense in California for illegals, with a 24 billion dollar shortfall deportation become more of an appropriate way of balancing the budget.(http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm)

The Martinez et al v. Regents of the University of California et al. court case states that "…an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident."
The out-of-state students also established unfair exclusion from reaping their lawfully deserved benefits, by having state law "illegally discriminate" against them "by denying them a benefit provided to illegal aliens."
Furthermore, balancing the numbers and enrollment at Long Beach State could be partially done by eliminating AB 540 students who have no legal right to be attending college before US citizens.
Overall it would be great to help out illegals in all aspects of their educational needs and desires but, legal residents come first. How can California help others if California cannot even help itself? People need to be financially cut off financially in the state who better and more deserving then illegal aliens of any race?