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Editorials
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Monday, May 12, 2008, 12:04 AM
Illegal immigrants and colleges The state attorney general's office has put a clamp on proposals to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. The office issued a ruling last week declaring that illegal immigrants should not be admitted to the state's community colleges and universities. The attorney general's opinion suggested that a no-admission policy would be more likely to pass a court test, which is probably inevitable. Until a state or federal court rules, however, the attorney general's opinion will prevail. And it should. Although critics of the opinion, including Gov. Mike Easley, are right to be concerned and compassionate about hard-working and successful persons who are in this country illegally, they cannot excuse the fact that their presence in North Carolina is illegal. These are not people born and raised here by immigrant parents; they are natives of other countries who entered this country illegally. The fact that some probably came here as young children and are not directly responsible for their smuggling into the United States is unfortunate but irrelevant. Until they establish a legal right to be in this country, either by being naturalized or holding a valid visa, they are not entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship. They cannot vote, they cannot hold elective office and they cannot attend state-supported colleges and universities. More important, they cannot take the place of a natural-born citizen in the competition for limited seats in a university or community college classroom. Nor can they charge the expense of their college educations to North Carolina taxpayers. Advocates for immigrants argue that legitimate residents would not be displaced by illegal immigrants or that the costs of educating illegal immigrants would be repaid or compensated by economic advantage, but these arguments are unconvincing. Both university and community college enrollments are growing, and both systems have finite space and faculty. To accommodate students who are here illegally will require either denying admission to other students or adding more classrooms, faculty and other resources. Fairness requires that something be done to address the conscientious, otherwise law-abiding students who have successfully attended our public schools but are ineligible for state-supported higher education. But that relief will have to come from the federal government, which has failed to secure our borders or to address the 12 million or more illegal immigrants in this country.
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