Several immigrant students without legal status were arrested at the University of Georgia Friday night during a protest of immigration policies that prevent them from attending some of the state’s largest colleges.
Police were called to Moore College around 6:30 p.m. after about 50 protesters refused to leave the building, which closed at 5 p.m., UGA's student newspaper, The Red and Black, reported. Some of the students voluntarily left the building when police arrived, but nine students from UGA, Kennesaw State and Freedom universities refused to leave and were arrested, according to the paper. The students were each charged with one count of criminal trespassing and told that they would be booked into Clarke County jail.
Georgia’s University System prohibits students without legal status from attending any college that has had to turn away qualified students for the past two years because of space constraints. Right now some of the system’s largest and most elite institutions fall under this provision, including the UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Georgia Regents and Georgia College and State universities. At the other state colleges those students can attend, they must pay more expensive out-of-state tuition rates.
With the merger announcement this week of Georgia State and Georgia Perimeter, some undocumented students have questioned whether the move would prevent them from attending Georgia Perimeter, where many are currently enrolled.
In addition to campus demonstrations, like that at UGA, the students have repeatedly demonstrated at meetings of the Georgia Board of Regents, the governing body of the state’s university system. Friday’s protest was held on the 54th anniversary of UGA’s desegregation.
In June, a Fulton County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the immigrant students challenging the state's tuition policies. The decision was appealed.
At the center of the lawsuit is a controversial Obama administration program, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that has granted people a temporary reprieve from deportation. The program applies to immigrants who were illegally brought here as children and attended school here and haven’t been convicted of felonies. Those accepted into the program are granted renewable two-year deportation deferrals and federal work permits.
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