Pro & Con: Should states extend college benefits to illegal immigrants?

The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office’s diversion of precious resources meant for securing public safety is case in point for why the unaccountable enforcement of immigration laws by local police in Cobb County and elsewhere in Georgia needs to end immediately.

As if this case was not proof enough about the perils of local enforcement of immigration laws, some are now calling for universities to also enter the dangerous terrain of acting as immigration police.

Undocumented college students are by and large talented high achievers who arrived in the U.S. as children because of the choices their parents made. They grew up in this country and persevered against the odds to graduate from high school and secure admission to Georgia colleges.

Our common interest in providing educational access for undocumented young people was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1982 landmark case of Plyler v. Doe, the Court held that undocumented students have a fundamental right to basic public education as a matter of due process and equal protection.

The court observed that denying undocumented children access to k-12 primary education “raises the specter of a permanent caste of undocumented resident aliens, encouraged by some to remain here as a source of cheap labor, but nevertheless denied the benefits that our society makes available to citizens and lawful residents.” This rationale applies with equal force to higher education, increasingly essential to an individual’s potential and opportunity.

Denying higher education access to Georgia’s undocumented students would mean failing to capitalize on the state’s investment in their k-12 education.

And denying these students access to affordable college education is short-sighted because they are likely to remain in Georgia and may well regularize their immigration status under current or future federal laws. Many of those students may one day be legal residents and citizens.

Facilitating educational access to students also promotes economic growth. College graduates who are likely to remain in Georgia earn higher wages and therefore generate significantly more in income, sales and property taxes. Their increased earning power and disposable income stimulates growth in Georgia’s economy. A better educated population also increases competitiveness in the global economy.

Allowing educational access to undocumented students is a legitimate policy choice by the state and permissible under federal law.

When the North Carolina attorney general advised the state’s community colleges that federal law required them to verify the immigration status of enrolled students, the federal Department of Homeland Security clarified in a letter that federal law did not in fact impose such a requirement. Community colleges in North Carolina have since backed off on a policy to bar undocumented students.

Jessica Colotl’s attorney described her as “an American in her heart because she believes in the values of this country.” Jessica and the thousands of undocumented youngsters in their situation who have grown up here are American.

Denying them further educational access flies in the face of the values of fundamental fairness shared by all Americans and makes no economic sense.

Azadeh N. Shahshahani is national security/immigrants’ rights project director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

NO: Congress passed a law against it in 1996; it hurts out-of-state students.

By Phil Kent

An illegal alien college student was arrested for a traffic violation while driving on the Kennesaw State University campus without a U.S. driver’s license.

Jessica Colotl then lied to the campus and county police about her address and phone number.

What happened next should outrage every taxpayer and Georgian who believes in the rule of law.

Colotl was taken to the county jail where she was handed over to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A deportation process began.

However, the Marietta newspaper reported “after a full court lobbying effort” by KSU President Dan Papp and “the school’s taxpayer-funded legal team, she was abruptly released ... and granted a one-year deferment by ICE during which to pursue her studies.”

The college president bragged, “This is great news for Ms. Colotl, her family and friends and for the KSU community. We are especially thrilled she will be allowed to continue her studies here at KSU. We would like to thank everyone involved.” And blah, blah, blah.

This is an outrageous abuse of college presidential power, and an insult to the taxpayers and parents of children who strive to get into college yet their slots are taken by illegals.

Adding to the insult is that Papp granted this illegal an in-state tuition rate.

This flies in the face of not only Georgia Board of Regents policy but also state and federal law.

Other states, sad to say, allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition if they have attended high school in the state for at least three years.

What is the genesis of this trend? In 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states must provide a free high school education to every child, even those illegally on American soil.

Paradoxically, in that same decision, the high court also said that “like all persons who have entered the United States unlawfully, these children are subject to deportation.”

So if the feds don’t remove them — the taxpayers have to educate them!

In 1996 Congress specifically made it illegal for states to grant any postsecondary education benefits to undocumented foreigners.

So a state allowing such benefits leaves itself wide open to legal challenge.

After all, in the states allowing the practice, students from other states are treated as second-class citizens to noncitizens who are deportable. There’s a strong “equal protection” argument to be made.

In Georgia, as the KSU case demonstrates, illegal aliens are getting tuition breaks by stealth; that is, soft-headed college presidents like Papp simply implement the practice on their own.

(By the way, colleges should be assisting the Homeland Security and Justice Departments in identifying foreign students who have overstayed their visas and who could pose a possible threat.)

Georgia’s Board of Regents just approved a steep tuition hike, yet it allows college presidents under its oversight to grant undocumented foreigners tuition breaks because lazy or “multiculturalist” admissions officials focus only on residency and shun working with federal authorities on students’ immigration status.

It may take legal action to force states that have allowed tuition breaks for illegals to stop such a foolish and unfair practice.

In the case of Georgia, clear policy must be implemented — set by the General Assembly, if University System regents won’t do it — on what kind of student identification colleges must accept and who may be given in-state tuition rates.

Phil Kent of Atlanta is the national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control.