[caption id="attachment_146905" align="aligncenter" width="1024"](AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

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The University of Chicago has awarded an illegal immigrant nearly $300,000 in scholarships, according to Campus Reform.

David Rodriguez (a pseudonym used for security purposes), is an illegal immigrant from Mexico whose family has been living in Tennessee since he was five years old. He was awarded a scholarship to UChicago after he was ruled ineligible for in-state tuition in Tennessee. Rodriguez was able to apply for scholarships at schools in other states under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which grants students from illegal immigrant families temporary visas to remain in America for college.

With UChicago’s annual tuition rate being slightly less than $72,000, Rodriguez's scholarship of nearly $300,000 will leave him with some extra money to spare.

“I became active in Black Lives Matter two years ago, became an LGBT rights activist, campaigned for Bernie Sanders. I had the GPA, test scores, and activities that could get me into a good college," Rodriguez said when explaining his qualifications for the scholarships he received.

UChicago is not the only school with this practice. In 2012, Pitzer College in California began offering a scholarship specifically for illegal immigrants from Latin American countries.

“We, every single year, offer one full-ride scholarship to an undocumented student who resides [illegally] in California… It’s called the Arnaldo Rodriguez scholarship, and all of the information can be found on our website,” Pitzer College admissions counselor JR Ramsey told The Claremont Independent.

The Arnaldo Rodriguez Scholarship, was named after the college's former vice president of admission and financial aid.

"Rodriguez spearheaded the creation of the scholarship that now bears his name in 2007 after meeting a high school student who was at the top of her class and had lived in the U.S. all her life but didn’t qualify for any financial aid due to her undocumented status. Rodriguez wanted to help students like her have access to higher education," Pitzer’s website states. “The need-based, four-year scholarship is awarded to top-performing students of Latin American descent who attended high school in California and are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States.”

These students also must fit a certain ethnic profile. For example, a white foreign student who happens to be in the United States illegally doesn't qualify for this scholarship.

“For people of full European descent, unfortunately [the scholarship] doesn’t apply,” Ramsey said. It follows from this that African and Asian students, too, are unqualified for the award, but Ramsey did remark, “if you’re part-Latino, you’re fine,” and “if you’re in [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] categorization, that still counts.”

Depending on how the 2016 presidential election turns out, DACA could possibly be in jeopardy. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump supports rescinding Obama’s executive orders on DACA.

“DACA is a government benefits program that unilaterally extends work permits, Social Security, Medicare, and cash tax benefits to people illegally in the country,” the Trump campaign told The Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Mr. Trump has been clear that any immigration plan he supports must improve jobs and wages for Americans, including the tens of millions of Americans out of work.”