Tusan continued: “Defendants have refused to accept the federally established lawful presence of plaintiffs and many other similarly situated students — students who are Georgia taxpayers, workers, and graduates of Georgia public high schools pursuing an affordable option for higher education. Such refusal of a faithful performance of their duties is unreasonable and creates a defect of legal justice that has already negatively impacted thousands of Georgia students.”

The Board of Regents appealed Tusan’s ruling.

This is the plaintiffs’ second attempt to reverse the tuition policy for DACA recipients. Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected their first attempt, saying sovereign immunity — the legal doctrine that protects state agencies from being sued — shields the Board of Regents from such lawsuits.

Charles Kuck, the attorney representing the DACA recipients in the case, said they would appeal, bringing the case back to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Rigoberto Rivera, a plaintiff and Roswell High School graduate who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, wrote on Facebook that the appeals court’s decision was “erroneous and an injustice” to the DACA recipients in Georgia who “pay taxes and that have fought for the past four years for their right to in-state tuition.”

“The Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance will continue the fight in court,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, which represented the Board of Regents in the case, had no comment other than to say the appeals court’s decision speaks for itself. A spokesman for the Board of Regents declined to comment.