Georgia urged to end ban on undocumented students at top colleges

Published April 14, 2011



Atlanta – The American Civil Liberties Union has requested that the Georgia Board of Regents revoke the policy limiting the access of undocumented youths to the five most selective state-funded colleges and universities.

"We're asking the Board of Regents to throw out this discriminatory, unfair, unnecessary policy without any economic vision of the future," Azadeh Shahshahani, director of the National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project at the ACLU of Georgia, told Efe.

The ACLU is challenging Policy 4.1.6, adopted by the board last October.

"A person who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible for admission to any University System institution which, for the two most recent academic years, did not admit all academically qualified applicants," the rule states.

The institutions that will have to adopt the new measure starting next autumn are the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia College and State University, the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia State University.

Those schools had a total of 29 undocumented students registered last year, according to figures compiled by the Board of Regents.

An ACLU investigation found that several state universities not subject to the rule are "wrongfully" demanding that students prove their legal status in the country to be able to enroll.

"Such practices mislead students as to the actual admission and registration requirements at USG (University System of Georgia) schools and raise significant privacy concerns by inquiring into student immigration status without a basis for doing so," Shahshahani said.

Among the universities that have been putting the policy into practice in an inappropriate way are North Georgia College & State University, Valdosta State University and Augusta State University, according to the ACLU report.

Public universities in Georgia allow undocumented immigrants to enroll, but they cannot receive federal or state aid and must pay tuition at the rate for non-residents, which is three times higher that the rate residents pay.

An investigation conducted by the Board of Regents last October found that just 501 students out of about 310,000 who attended the 35 USG institutions were undocumented.

In the letter, the ACLU urges the authorities to instruct all institutions in Georgia's public university system to eliminate any erroneous information regarding admission policies from their applications and other documentation.

"We have learned that this discriminatory policy has had even more damaging consequences, as it is being widely misinterpreted and misapplied," Shahshahani said.

Last week, seven undocumented students belonging to "The Dream is Coming Project" movement were arrested in a protest on the Georgia State University campus at which they were calling for a halt to the implementation of Rule 4.1.6.

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