The state of Georgia is fighting to prevent undocumented students living in Georgia and permitted to remain here under an Obama administration policy from qualifying for in-state tuition at the state's colleges and universities.

At the Georgia Court of Appeals Thursday, Assistant State Attorney General Russell Willard argued on behalf of the state Board of Regents, which operates Georgia's public university system, that a Fulton County judge got it wrong last year when she determined that the undocumented college students are lawful residents by virtue of their status under former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. The judge's ruling meant that undocumented students approved for the DACA program were eligible for in-state rather than higher out-of-state tuition fees.

Willard said the federal government's decisions to defer action on whether to deport the students was not enough to make them legal residents of Georgia or confer on them a legal status that would qualify them for in-state tuition.