Ga. college applications question citizen status

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Illegal immigrants who want to attend one of Georgia's public colleges have to lie on the application to get admitted.

The form used by the 35 institutions that make up the University System of Georgia asks prospective students to disclose their citizen status. They have just three options:

• U.S. citizen;
• Nonresident alien: A person who is not a citizen or national of the U.S. and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely;
• Permanent resident: A non-citizen living in the U.S. under legally recognized and lawfully recorded permanent residence status as an immigrant.

The applicant is not required to provide proof of citizenship or residency documents, and university officials say they assume people will answer truthfully.

"How do people get around this? I don't know," said John Vanchella, spokesman for the State Board of Regents. "How do people get around paying their taxes? The point is the University System is doing everything within its power."

Many Georgians are asking questions about how many illegal immigrants are attending the state's public colleges because of the case involving Jessica Colotl, an undocumented student at Kennesaw State University who has been arrested.

Colotl's parents brought to this country illegally when she was 10; she graduated from Lakeside High School in DeKalb County with a 3.8 grade-point average. Kennesaw State said she was admitted in 2006 as a Georgia resident paying in-state tuition.

A KSU statement on Friday said the university was unaware of Colotl's status until April 26, about a month after her arrest, and emphasized that university President Dan Papp wrote a letter to a judge asking that, "within the letter of the law," Colotl be permitted to complete her studies.

Georgia's current admission rules were developed after the state passed a sweeping immigration law in 2006. That law, which went into effect in July 2007, directed the Board of Regents to assure that universities aren't giving illegal immigrants benefits prohibited under federal law.

The board's attorney concluded that lower in-state tuition constituted a benefit barred for illegal immigrants, even if they graduated from a Georgia high school. He also said college presidents should stop granting in-state tuition waivers to high-achieving students who lacked legal residency.

Colotl was admitted to Kennesaw State before these rules or the current application questions were in place.

"We follow the law," said Erroll Davis, chancellor of the University System of  the Georgia.

Some say the state must do more to make sure undocumented students don't attend Georgia's colleges.  Republican candidate for governor Eric Johnson has called on the system to check the nationality of all students.

Davis said such checks would be impractical and expensive. The system's 35 campuses enroll more than 300,000 students and would cost between $25 to $50 conduct each check, he estimated. That money could also be spent to hire about 20 professors, he said.

"If you ask this University System, ‘Is it worth 20 professors to check the backgrounds of students?' I don't think you'll get too many yeses," Davis said.

Johnson called Davis' comments "a bureaucratic response."

"First and foremost, we cannot afford to simply ignore the law, and it is unacceptable to brazenly dismiss the responsibility of enforcement," he said. "Furthermore, it is beyond the realm of belief that it would cost $25 per student to verify citizenship. Someone at the Chancellors Office needs to start giving some straight answers before this situation gets beyond their control."

A 2009 survey from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that more than half of colleges knowingly admit illegal immigrants. The survey also found that about 20 percent verify the immigration status of applicants.