University of California, Riverside grant funding policies favor immigrants over U.S. citizens

University of California, Riverside grant funding policies favor immigrants over U.S. citizens

The University of California, Riverside’s Undocumented Student Programs offers up to $9,000 annually through its Butterfly Project Fellowship to “DREAMers, students from mixed-status families, and undocu allies,” while a comparable graduate research grant for U.S. citizen graduate students provides up to $4,000 per year.

According to fellowship materials reviewed by Campus Reform, the Butterfly Project Fellowship provides up to $9,000 annually to illegal alien graduate students, with awards “disbursed through the Financial Aid Office.” 

At public universities such as UCR, the financial aid office administers taxpayer-supported financial aid programs, meaning public resources are being used to subsidize a university that is providing substantially larger awards to illegal immigrant graduate students than to comparable U.S. citizen graduate students.