Push on Immigration Issue Shows Its Value to N.C. GOP

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer

Posted: Today at 5:26 p.m.
Updated: Today at 7:03 p.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Republican candidate for governor pressed state officials Monday to defend a new policy requiring community colleges to admit illegal immigrants, a sign that GOP hopefuls believe it a good issue for them in next year's election.

GOP state Sen. Fred Smith of Johnston County wrote Attorney General Roy Cooper, asking him to say whether he believes the changed policy is lawful. The previous policy, altered by a community college attorney, had given the 58 campuses discretion whether to accept undocumented applicants.

Cooper's office said it would review the new policy after the state Community College System sought advice Monday.

The five leading major-party candidates for governor, including Republicans Bill Graham and Bob Orr and Democrats Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore, all came out against the policy within two days of it becoming public last week.

But Gov. Mike Easley - a Democrat unable to seek a third term - supports the new policy developed from a college system run by former Democratic congressman Martin Lancaster. So Democratic Party candidates stand to shoulder the most criticism.

"Republicans ought to benefit the most because they have been the most vocal on illegal immigration and on budgetary situations," said Ballard Everett, a GOP political consultant who is working with none of the Republican candidates. "If they play it right, they can have an advantage."

Smith, one of three Republican gubernatorial hopefuls, told Cooper the policy appears to contradict federal and state laws. Smith said federal law requires that the state Legislature approve the change, which hasn't happened.

"We are sending a message to students and employers that North Carolina will not only ignoring federal immigration law, but provide encouragement and assistance to individuals who are breaking the law," Smith wrote.

Cooper, a Democrat seeking a third term next year, must consider a response to a policy change that has angered conservative groups and activists who want more enforcement of current immigration laws.

"Our attorneys will examine state and federal statutes and court decisions in order to advise the community colleges as to the current state of the law," Cooper spokesman Noelle Talley wrote in an e-mail.

Bill Gheen, president of Raleigh-based Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said his group plans to create a similar political action committee that would give campaign contributions to state candidates in line with its views.

The group has opposed other initiatives, including a 2005 bill that would have provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who attended University of North Carolina and community college campuses.

"The governor and his minions are out of line with a huge majority of North Carolinians," Gheen said in a prepared statement, and it will "cost them dearly at the polls in 2008."

Easley argued that public school children of illegal immigrants shouldn't be denied higher education because their parents entered the country unlawfully. He blamed Washington for failing to come up with a comprehensive solution to illegal immigration.

The state shouldn't "slam the door in their face and condemn them to the underclass," he said in an interview. Everett said Easley's views may not harm Democrats as much at the polls since he is on the way out of office.

Undocumented individuals will continue to have to pay out-of-state tuition, as do the 340 students labeled such at nearly two-thirds of the 58 campuses that had agreed to enroll these immigrants under the old policy.

State community college officials contend they don't expect many more undocumented students to enroll and point out that a student paying out-of-state tuition pays $2,100 more than the costs on average of instructing a student.

But opponents argue that doesn't show the real expense because it doesn't take into account all of the costs associated with a community college education. Tuition comprised 12.5 percent of funding for the community college system during the fiscal year ending last June 30, according to a system report.

Easley said he believes his successor ultimately will have to take a second look at the issue when the person is faced with the realities of the state's economy.

"When someone actually has to govern a state and (decide) how to build the best climate and the strongest work force, opinions are going to change," he said.

Easley found one unlikely ally Monday in Mike Munger, the Libertarian candidate for governor.

"To withhold the right even to attend to people who are paying taxes in North Carolina seems to me just another step toward creating an apartheid system with second class non-citizens," Munger said in a statement.

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