Universities Rely On Students To Disclose Immigration Status

By John Lyon
THE MORNING NEWS

THE MORNING NEWS

LITTLE ROCK -- Officials at state universities in Arkansas say they have policies against admitting or granting financial aid to students who are in the country illegally -- but they rely on the truthfulness of the students to enforce those policies.

The question of whether children of illegal immigrants should be eligible for college aid has been debated in Congress recently and has become an issue in the presidential race, with Republican candidate Mike Huckabee facing criticism over his support as Arkansas governor of a failed 2005 bill that would have granted in-state college tuition rates to the children of illegal immigrants.

An early version of the measure also would have made the children of illegal immigrants eligible for state scholarships.

University of Arkansas spokesman Ben Beaumont said Friday university board policy states it is the duty of each student at the time of registration to call any questions about his or her residency status to the attention of university officials.

"In most cases ... they are asked on their application form if they're a citizen of the United States," Beaumont said. "If they put 'no,' they would not be admitted."

The university does not investigate whether the students have answered truthfully.



"There's no policy to do background checks," Beaumont said. "That would not be done on any campuses. We're not in the business of doing background checks on all of our students. I think that would take some unnecessary time, unnecessary money, unnecessary resources to do that. And we're not a law enforcement agency."

University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin said some mistakenly believe UCA offers scholarships and in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants, but in fact there are checks in the system to bar people who are in the country illegally from receiving aid.

"We do not give scholarships to illegal aliens," he said.

UCA spokesman Warwick Sabin said students who register to attend UCA are not asked specifically about their immigration status, but they are asked to give their Social Security number and their city of birth and say whether they have registered for selective service -- and if not, why not.

Hardin said students are given "the benefit of the doubt" about their truthfulness in filling out UCA applications. Making false statements on an application can be a criminal offense, he noted.

"It is not, nor should it be, the duty of the college to do an immigration background on every student applicant. That is the job of the immigration service and not the college and university," Hardin said.

Huckabee has said he supported the 2005 bill because the children of illegal immigrants should not be punished for their parents' actions. He has said he is not sure he would support similar action at the federal level.

A bill in Congress that would have helped the children of illegal immigrants attend college, the so-called DREAM Act, was defeated in the U.S. Senate in October.