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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says customers will have to provide proof of vaccination to enter certain indoor spaces at a news conference, Monday, Dec. 20, 2021. (WHDH/CNN)

The City of Boston is setting aside COVID-19 relief money to help low-income students who aren't U.S. citizens go to community college.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recentlyannounced a $4 million investment to help low-income students go to community college "regardless of their year of graduation, income, or immigration status."

The investment, which is beingfunded by $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and an additional $1 million from the Community Project Funding secured by Democrats in Congress, can pay for up to three years of college tuition at participating colleges.

"Not only will expanding Bostons tuition-free community college program help more students earn a college degree, but it will also help us address the college affordability crisis," Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. said, according to Mayor Wu's press release. "I am proud to have secured these federal funds to expand this program."

Some critics argue using funding from the congressionally approved American Rescue Plan Act to help non-U.S. residents go to college is a misuse of funds.

It was primarily intended for mitigating the economic impacts of COVID and to help put an end to the virus's continued outbreaks, Campus Reform Correspondent and Stetson University law student Brittany Lyssy told The National Desk (TND).

"There are so many ways that this money could be implemented, but giving it to illegal immigrants so that they can attend college is not really the way that it should be used, or the way that it was intended to be used," Lyssy told TND. "It should be helping current students who are in these schools with securing jobs, or securing internships, or educational programs that these schools can be offering. It could be helping them with their meals, helping them with living expenses, something to benefit the students that are already in these colleges not just giving it away to illegal immigrants."

Shortly after President Biden took office, his administration reversed a Trump-era rule keeping undocumented students from receiving scholarship or grant money via the American Rescue Plan. Under the Biden administration, that changed, and undocumented residents in the U.S. were allowed to receive funding from the plan for school.

Colleges and universities like Yale, Harvard and others across the nation received millions in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.

In 2000, California passed a law giving in-state tuition to undocumented migrants, and today,at least 23 states do soas well. Fordham University in New York City has started giving internship opportunities to high schoolers who are undocumented migrants.

Lyssy told TND this message tells American students it's okay to "jump over you in line," and that "illegal immigrants who broke the law, who did not follow the process, who shouldn't even be here really, go to college for free and you're going to pay for it."

TND reached out to Mayor Wu's office for comment, but did not immediately hear back. If a response is received, this story will be updated.

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Boston using COVID funds to help give undocumented immigrants free tuition - KEYE TV CBS Austin