Thread: AR: Attorney General Says Schools Can Admit IAs

Arkansas Attorney General Says Schools Can Admit Illegal Immigrants
By The Associated Press
9/10/2008 5:39:09 PM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Arkansas' colleges and universities can admit illegal immigrants and aren't required to verify that potential students are in the country legally, the Arkansas attorney general's office said in an opinion Wednesday.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an advisory opinion that schools don't have a duty to verify the citizenship status of potential students they admit. The state's higher education director earlier this year ordered schools to check the immigration status of potential students.

"It is my opinion in response to your specific questions that undocumented individuals may enroll in Arkansas' public colleges and universities and that such schools are not obliged to verify citizenship as a condition of enrollment," McDaniel said in the opinion, answering questions submitted by state Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren.

McDaniel's opinion, however, noted that there was nothing barring schools from making citizenship a requirement of admission to a school or from checking immigration status on their own.

The state's higher education chief earlier this year sent out a letter warning schools not to offer illegal immigrants in-state tuition, unless they wanted to give the same benefits to an out-of-state student. The department began polling the state's two- and four-year colleges and universities after that to find out their admissions practices.

Higher Education Director Jim Purcell in May said after checking a statewide database of student information that about 2,000 people enrolled at state colleges and universities attended class under dummy Social Security numbers. Some of those could have been illegal immigrants, while others could be international students or legal U.S. residents who haven't registered with the Social Security Administration.

The opinion was requested by Green, who has been pushing for more state-level laws targeting illegal immigration. Green said Wednesday he had not yet read the opinion and did not know if he would introduce legislation requiring schools to not admit illegal immigrants.

Green said he thought Purcell's letter to colleges requiring verification of citizenship addressed at least one of the concerns he had in requesting the opinion from the state's top attorney.

"For us to be providing any type of benefits to people who are not citizens ... does not serve the state well," Green said.

The opinion from McDaniel's office, prepared by Assistant Attorney General Elisabeth Walker, avoids interpreting any federal law on the admission of illegal immigrants. Instead, it says that the federal Homeland Security Department has said it's up to states to decide whether to allow illegal immigrants to attend public colleges and universities.

Gov. Mike Beebe's office said he believed the opinion validated the state's actions by ordering schools to check the immigration status of potential students.

"This does not change our opinion that the actions of the Department of Higher Education have helped ensure that our colleges and universities are acting properly," Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said.
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article ... 928.120274

McDaniel: Alien ban up to colleges

BY SETH BLOMELEY
Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008

Arkansas colleges and universities have no duty under law to ban illegal aliens as students, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said late Wednesday.

“The U. S. Department of Homeland Security has expressed the view that it is left for states to decide whether or not to enroll out-of-status or undocumented individuals in public institutions of higher education,â€

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