Higher student fees approved by California State University and the University of California may have doomed legislation to make certain undocumented students eligible for state financial aid.

The bill's author, Assembly Member Ronald Calderon, D-Covina, has not given up. But 19-year-old America Hernandez thinks AB 153 is dead.

"I understand that, with the budget cuts, this is not going through," she says. "They have made it quite impossible."

Reacting to reduced state financial support, CSU trustees voted to increase student fees 30% for the coming school year. UC regents voted to raise fees 25% with an option to add an additional 5% later.

The combination of increased student fees and budget cuts in the state's higher education system has led Hernandez to change the focus of her advocacy for undocumented students. The best chance now, she says, is pending federal legislation. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act would provide immigration adjustments for qualifying college and university students.

California lawmakers adopted legislation last year that permits students to pay lower in-state fees for the state's public community colleges and universities regardless of their residency status if they:

Attended a California high school for at least three years.

Graduated from a California high school or received a state high school equivalency degree.

File an affidavit promising to apply with federal immigration authorities for permanent residency when eligible.

But the in-state fees are too high for many undocumented students to pay.

Community college students pay $11 per unit, but the charge is expected to rise by at least $7 per unit. At 30 units per year, that would mean annual fees of $330, not counting books and other living expenses.

A full-time CSU undergraduate will pay $2,046 in fees for the year, graduate students $2,256. UC undergraduates face annual fees of $4,984 and more than $6,000 for graduate students.

These charges are still considerably less than what out-of-state students pay, but supporters of Calderon's bill say they are still too high for most undocumented students. AB 153 would allow those who are eligible under last year's law to apply for waivers of their in-state fees.

The divisive political issue is whether they should receive such state support.

Maria Lucero Ortiz directs immigrants' higher education outreach for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and calls Calderon's bill one of the "exciting bills under consideration."

California already has funds set aside for educational grants, Ortiz says, but millions of dollars go unclaimed. Those funds return to the state general fund, says Francisco Estrada, a policy analyst who works with MALDEF. He cites one legislative committee analysis estimating that about $90 million returned in this manner to the state general fund last year.

In other times, this might be a powerful argument for Calderon's bill. Proponents now must argue for the legislation despite the state's projected $38.2 billion budget shortfall.

"We are not asking for extra funds," Ortiz says. "These students have worked hard. Their main problem is that they lack Social Security numbers because they don't have legal status."

That is reason enough not to grant them aid, say opponents of Calderon's bill. Why allow lower in-state rates to people who are in the United States illegally, let alone provide them with financial aid?

The Federation for American Immigration Reform is an advocacy group seeking to curtail what it calls mass immigration over the last 30 years. Staff counsel Mike Hethmon expects FAIR to join legal action against the new law and Calderon's bill, should it become law.

"Federal law prohibits state and local governments to provide higher educational benefit to illegal aliens unless it is provided to U.S. citizens without regard to residence," he said from Washington. "To my knowledge, this challenge has never been tested in court. I am looking forward to the outcome."

Hethmon says there is "a sympathetic ring" to concerns for undocumented college-aged students who had no say in coming to the United States as infants or children with their parents.

"But the distinction between an illegal alien and a legal resident is fundamental in any society," he says.

America Hernandez, born in Mexico but a Californian since she was 3 months old, disagrees. She holds two jobs and may add a third when the fall semester begins at California State University, Fresno, in order to pay the 30% increase in her fees.

She says she committed no crime in coming to the United States, so she should be entitled to financial aid.

"How can I be illegal?" she asks. "You can't say someone committed a crime unless it was done knowingly. A child of 3 months is not consciously committing a crime. Even at 14, a child is not responsible. The courts say you are a kid until you're 18."