mdjonline.com
Verify student citizenship, regents urged
by Kim Isaza
newseditor@ mdjonline.com
May 12, 2010 12:00 AM

ATLANTA - Sen. Eric Johnson, Republican candidate for governor, urged the Board of Regents to make citizenship verification a component of the college admissions process, amid Journal reports that Jessica Colotl, an illegal immigrant, was paying in-state tuition at Kennesaw State University.

"The point I'm making is to start with the Board of Regents, to create a citizenship verification for any student applying to a university, to make sure Georgia taxpayers are not subsidizing those who are not in this country legally," Johnson said.

"When we passed Georgia's tough illegal immigration law, three years ago when I was leading the Senate, we required the Board of Regents to establish a policy for nonresidents. They apparently did not do that, and I'm calling on them to do that or I will add it to my platform and if elected governor, I will do it by law," Johnson said.

The 18-member Board of Regents, which oversees Georgia's 35 state colleges and universities, began the first day of a two-day meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday, and one of its first actions was approving tuition increases as part of the University System's fiscal 2011 budget. At Kennesaw State, tuition will increase by 15 percent per semester.

As for how Johnson made his request to the Regents, he demurred.

"I think they got the message. We're making difficult budget situations, as we're furloughing professors. They're very well aware that a leading candidate for governor is not happy that illegal immigrants are using some of our limited resources."

Cobb's two candidates for attorney general also weighed in Tuesday on the Jessica Colotl case.

Colotl, 21, was booked into Cobb County Jail on March 30, a day after a campus traffic stop for which she could not provide a valid driver's license. She was turned over to immigration authorities and reportedly taken to an immigration detention center in Gadsden, Ala., on April 1.

"In my opinion, she should not receive in-state tuition or be eligible for HOPE scholarship," Republican Sam Olens said. "Those benefits should be given to legal, Georgia residents."

"It would be in purview of the attorney general to send a memo to all state institutions that they make sure every individual receiving HOPE or in-state tuition is legally in this country," Olens said.

University President Dr. Dan Papp's office confirmed to the Journal last week that Colotl was paying the lower, in-state tuition.

It remains unclear whether Colotl was receiving the HOPE scholarship. U.S. citizenship is not required to receive the scholarship, though the application defines an "eligible non-citizen" as someone with a permanent resident alien card; or certain other immigration and/or homeland security documents. People on student visas are not eligible for the HOPE scholarship.

Rob Teilhet, a Smyrna Democrat in the state House who is seeking his party's nomination in the Attorney General's race, said such actions don't seem right.

"It's hard for me to see why the university's lawyer was acting as an advocate on behalf of a student. For the university to be doing that, seems to me to be outside of their mission," Teilhet said, though he said he had no inside knowledge of what exactly the university did to help her. Still, "to the extent Papp directed that, it was inappropriate," Teilhet said.

Colotl has since been released, and immigration authorities agreed to defer any action against her for one year. On Tuesday, Papp disputed Journal reports that the university went to extensive efforts to assist Colotl.

After learning of Colotl's arrest, KSU attorney Flora Devine called the Mexican consulate to make them aware of the situation, Papp writes, and KSU's chief student affairs officer talked with the president of Colotl's sorority "to inquire what assistance KSU could provide."

Papp himself spoke to Colotl's lawyer on April 28 and agreed to submit an affidavit on her behalf. That letter reads, in part: "I write to request that within the letter of the law, Jessica be provided every opportunity to stay at, or return to, Kennesaw State University," Papp said Tuesday in a written response to the Journal.

"That was, and is, the extent of KSU's involvement in Ms. Colotl's case," he wrote.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Americans for Immigration Control, a non-partisan, anti-illegal immigration organization, urged the Regents to fire Papp.

"Kennesaw State University President Daniel Papp should be removed by the Georgia Board of Regents for breaking state and federal laws by granting in-state tuition to a known illegal alien student and for using the university's taxpayer-funded resources to stop her deportation process," the group's spokesman, Phil Kent, said in a statement.

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