Thread: RALEIGH, Colleges must admit illegals

Community colleges ordered to let in illegal immigrants
Decision won't cost N.C., officials say, but critics say colleges shouldn't ignore broken laws
MARK JOHNSON
mjohnson@charlotteobserver.com

RALEIGH --North Carolina's community college system has ordered the state's 58 campuses to admit illegal immigrants, overturning a policy of letting the heavily enrolled schools set their own rules for handling undocumented applicants.

David Sullivan, the system's top lawyer, dispatched a memo this month telling the community colleges that state regulations require the schools to admit illegal immigrants who meet the schools' basic requirements of being either a high school graduate or an adult in need of skills training.

"That's just wrong," said state Sen. Richard Stevens, a Raleigh Republican and co-chair of the higher education committee. "The law ought to be changed."

Rep. Winkie Wilkins, a Person County Democrat who chairs the House committee on community colleges, said he was "blindsided" by the news.

The state's community colleges focus on training and retraining the work force, usually through skills and trade education. Melinda Wiggins is executive director of Student Action With Farm Workers, which helps children of migrant farm workers get into high school and college. She said barring illegal immigrants from community colleges penalizes youths who were brought to the United States as children.

"North Carolina is their home. It's where they've been raised and lived," Wiggins said.

"By denying them an education, we're really creating an underclass of folks here in the state who cannot contribute to society."

N.C. public schools must accept children of illegal immigrants under federal regulations. The University of North Carolina system admits undocumented applicants, but a bill to provide in-state tuition to some was quickly shot down in 2005.

Decision won't cost N.C.

Community college executives said the admissions guidelines won't cost the state. Illegal immigrants must pay out-of-state tuition, $7,465 for a full class load, which is more than the actual cost of providing the education, $5,375, the officials said.They also emphasized that under the old policy, with most schools admitting undocumented applicants, 340 of the 270,000 students last year -- or about one-tenth of 1 percent -- were illegal immigrants. If that figure quadrupled, the system could handle it, Sullivan said.

"Colleges should immediately begin admitting undocumented individuals," Sullivan wrote in the Nov. 7 memo.

It's unclear how many schools prohibited illegal immigrants from enrolling.

A study this year by a Duke University graduate-level class listed 22 campuses as having a written or unwritten policy to bar undocumented applicants. The Observer contacted the three schools nearest to Charlotte, McDowell Technical, Cleveland and Stanly community colleges. All said they had no such policy and had been admitting illegal immigrants.

Central Piedmont Community College has been admitting illegal immigrants.

Wake Technical Community College, in Raleigh, was among the schools that had to change its policy after the recent memo.

"We had just always required appropriate documentation," including legal residency, said Laurie Clowers, the school's public relations director.

After review, a policy change

The new policy memo came after an unverified complaint that an illegal immigrant was dismissed from one of the colleges and after the Duke class's study. The study was prompted by an unrelated research request from the community colleges.

The community colleges are required to keep an open-door admissions policy, but were allowed in 2004 to set their own regulations on illegal immigrants.

Sullivan said administrators reviewed that practice this year. They discovered a 1997 advisory letter from the office of then-Attorney General and now Gov. Mike Easley that, while not addressing illegal immigrants specifically, said that the community colleges cannot impose nonacademic criteria for admission.

"We thought through the policy again," Sullivan said, and concluded they were wrong to let schools reject undocumented applicants.

Easley's current staff deflected any comment on whether the community colleges were correctly interpreting the 10-year-old letter.

"You're going to have to ask the current attorney general that," said Sherri Johnson, Easley's communications director.

Questions of legality

Robert Luebke, an education policy analyst with the conservative Civitas Institute in Raleigh, said the new community college directive orders the schools to ignore the fact that the prospective students are breaking the law."These students cannot legally work in North Carolina," Luebke said in a prepared statement. "Subsidizing the education of students who can only work using a forged or stolen Social Security card is absurd."

N.C. Sen. Fred Smith and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, both Republican candidates for governor, both said they oppose admitting illegal immigrants.

"People can't pick and choose which laws they're going to follow," Smith said, "and which laws they're not going to follow."

Mike Taylor, president of Stanly Community College, said the out-of-state tuition expense effectively serves as an exclusion for illegal immigrants, since many cannot afford the extra cost. That means members of that community can't get job training.

"We're put between a rock and a hard place on this," Taylor said. "These same people we can't admit without paying out-of-state tuition can graduate as valedictorian from any high school in Stanly County."
http://www.charlotte.com/mobile/story/381440.html

added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-2742-thread-1-0.html

I have called and sent e-mails to both of my representatives in the North Carolin General Assemby over this matter asking them to pass a law requiring that community colleges admit illegal aliens.

Below is the body of the letter:

Dear Assemblywoman Ray:
Dear Assemblyman Forrester:

I am appalled by the decision to require North Carolina Community Colleges to admit illegal aliens. This flies in the face of logic and is opposed by the vast majority of state residents and citizens nationwide. Citizens are fed up with the pandering and coddling of illegal aliens by legislatures, politicians, business and individuals who think it is just fine to ignore our county's immigration laws.

Illegal aliens are illegally in our country. It is as simple as that. Illegal means it is prohibited by law. Being illegally in our country means you have broken our immigration law and by remaining and operating in our country you have also broken a host of other laws.

Will you please tell me why it is OK to ignore that fact that illegal aliens have broken our laws yet are allowed to remain and operate in our country with impunity and even receive encouragement and benefits in doing so? Let me start by reminding you that any alien who is present in the United States in violation of Title 8 Section 1325 of the U.S. Code, "Improper Entry by Alien Act" or any other law of the United States is deportable. So instead of enforcing our immigration laws, North Carolina is going to ensure illegal aliens entry into community colleges? Beside the fact that it is against US law to aid and abet illegal aliens, can the North Carolina Community College System ensure that not one citizen student will be displaced from attending community college or be closed out of a class because of the presence of illegal aliens? Since the community college system does receive taxpayer dollars for its operation, how do they justify allowing illegal aliens to attend and, in fact, encourage their attendance?

I want the NC General Assembly to pass a law stopping this illegal practice and I want all perpetrators involved with this decision making arrested and charged with violations of the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act. I have listed the applicable sections of violations they should be charged with below:

Federal Immigration and Nationality Act
Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)
"Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."


Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.

Sincerely,

I don't think they can bar any PAYING prospective student. As long as these students PAY their own way (not subsidized in any way), they can attend.

NO financial aid packages
NO in-state tuiton

Originally Posted by miguelina

I don't think they can bar any PAYING prospective student. As long as these students PAY their own way (not subsidized in any way), they can attend.

NO financial aid packages
NO in-state tuiton

Tell me WHY illegal aliens illegally in our country cannot be barred from operating in our country in any form, i.e.; work, attending an institution of higher education, driving, receiving welfare benefits, etc. Fact is, I doubt anyone can. The reason illegals are remaining and operating in our country is NOT because we don't have laws in place to prevent it, it is because we DON'T ENFORCE the laws we have.

Originally Posted by zeezil

Originally Posted by miguelina

I don't think they can bar any PAYING prospective student. As long as these students PAY their own way (not subsidized in any way), they can attend.

NO financial aid packages
NO in-state tuiton

Tell me WHY illegal aliens illegally in our country cannot be barred from operating in our country in any form, i.e.; work, attending an institution of higher education, driving, receiving welfare benefits, etc. Fact is, I doubt anyone can. The reason illegals are remaining and operating in our country is NOT because we don't have laws in place to prevent it, it is because we DON'T ENFORCE the laws we have.

Ain't that the truth! Until Congress gets off its duff and does something about illegals (instead of wasting time on suppressing our civil rights ala S.1959), and illegals are still here, might as well take their money if they want to attend college.

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Originally Posted by MW

MyAmerica wrote:

They don't even have to graduate from high school -- merely being 18 years of age qualifies them for college.

Many of the schools also offer training in the trades.

And that my friends is a whole other ball of wax... : :

It may have been stated before here, but admitting illegal aliens into two year "technical trade" programs might allow them to go into internships and apprenticeships by virtual of their 'student' status. Such an illegal alien may claim that the work they do is part of their "education" and not in violation of labor laws! They may also be elgible for additional "welfare to work" benefits that are routinely denied out-of-work Americans who have savings in excess of the federal poverty limits. Certain colleges would probably gain additional training funds from the federal government. Of course, the American tax payer would foot the bill for all of this, and two year college campuses would be turned into another magent for extended illegal immigrant families to travel to the US and take over student "ghettos".

miguelina wrote:

I don't think they can bar any PAYING prospective student. As long as these students PAY their own way (not subsidized in any way), they can attend.

Sure they can. There is no federal law that requires colleges and universities to accept illegal immigrant students. If the state wants to deny them attendance in public universities and community colleges, it can do so. Furthermore, private colleges can deny them entrance too, if they so choose. Federal law only requires a K-12 education for illegal immigrants.

Heck, the article tells you that 22 of the community colleges were actually denying entrance to illegal immigrants before the revision in policy.

Just called the guvna's office. Assistant said it's not the
governor's decision & declined to say whether the gov
supports the decision or whether he would support
legislation

Basnight's assistant said my name was being added to
'a long list."

Speaker Hackney's rep wasn't much help.

This is an outrage, Please everyone we need to stop these kind of people who blatantly spend our money with out a care, we are not obligated to educate illegals or obligated to let them in our colleges!



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!!!! 11/29
HELP STOP "NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY COLLEGES" FROM ADMITTING ILLEGALS !!(This could come to your community college next)
WATCH VIDEO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zxJZBecp_0
ACTION THREAD( CONTACT INFORMATION)
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-92278.html
WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT ALIPAC Please Contribute!!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=C ... page&pid=9