The Fulbright-Hays Fellowship supports U.S. students conducting foreign language research abroad. However, since 1998, the Department of Education has unfairly penalized "non-native-born" students who learned the language through heritage, denying them 15 points out of 105 for language proficiency. Samar Ahmad and Edgar Ulloa Lujan, fluent in Arabic and Spanish respectively, faced penalties despite their proficiency. This discrimination contradicts the fellowship's purpose and violates students' due process rights.

NCLA filed Edgar Ulloa Lujan, Samar Ahmad, and Veronica Gonzalez v. U.S. Department of Education, et al. challenging the "native language penalty." This rule unfairly discriminates against American citizens from non-English-speaking countries and their children, barring them from the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship based on their national heritage language.

In this episode, NCLA's Sheng Li joins Mark and Vec to discuss this case.