The head of the state Board of Regents said Monday that a new lawsuit over tuition could finally force the legislature to explain whether it is violating a constitutional provision to keep instruction at the universities "as nearly free as possible.''

José Patiño has done everything right, keeping within the many lines of federal bureaucracy involved with being a part of the Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals program. But now, he is scrambling to come up with plans A, B, and C in case Congress does not come through with a plan to replace the program.

The state's top prosecutor intends to pursue his lawsuits challenging benefits for "dreamers'' even as the president has given Congress six months to fix the program or have it start to go away.

Nov. 9, 2016, was a day when many people in the United States felt stunned and lost. I was one of those people, but my circumstances were a bit different. As a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, my future and my family’s seemed like a dark cloud of escalated deportations and hopelessness as we imagined everything we had fought so hard for being taken away.

An appellate court ruling denying in-state tuition to “Dreamers” is based on a flawed reading of the law, the attorney for Maricopa colleges contends. In new legal papers, attorney Mary O’Grady, who represents the colleges, told the Arizona Supreme Court ...

Regent Jay Heiler, who is an attorney, said he believes the regents’ policy clearly violates a 2006 voter-approved law, which prohibits the use of tax dollars to subsidize the tuition of students not in this country legally.

Saying they are comfortable with their decision, members of the Board of Regents told Attorney General Mark Brnovich Thursday they have no plans to hike tuition for dreamers -- at least not until the Supreme Court orders them to do it.

Ultimately, we believe the best way forward is comprehensive immigration reform that provides permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the shadows today.

With the threat of a lawsuit looming, Attorney General Mark Brnovich wants members of the Board of Regents to explain why they think they can let "dreamers'' pay the same tuition as other Arizona residents.

Backed by the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, former state Senate President Russell Pearce claims that a 2006 voter-approved law requires that those not here legally can attend universities only if they pay full out-of-state tuition.