The following article was originally published in the News and Observer on September 17, 2009.
The State Board of the N.C. Community Colleges System is looking to change its policy to allow the admission of illegal immigrants — again. If the board approves the new policy (currently, a recommendation from its policy committee), it will be the fifth change in nine years. While the board’s zigzag track record inspires little confidence, the case for admitting illegal immigrants to N.C. community colleges inspires even less.
Members of the system’s policy committee cite fairness and the need to provide the disadvantaged with educational opportunities as major selling points of the proposed change. Considering all the discussion on moral ideals, it’s puzzling to hear officials touting the economic reasons for the policy. They say that admitting illegals is the right thing to do. At the same time, they say that because actual per student educational costs are about $5,000, charging illegal immigrants out-of-state tuition rates (about $7,000) would allow the state to actually "make money."
No doubt the proposed policy and message are driven by strong public opposition to using tax dollars to subsidize the education of illegal immigrants. Proponents, who contend that admitting illegal immigrants would result in no public subsidies, should consider the following:
First, 71 percent of all community college system revenue comes from state appropriations, 13 percent from local governments and 12 percent from tuition revenue. Even if illegal immigrants pay more in tuition, the totals fall far short of offsetting this balance. Second, the assertion that no public subsidies would be used to educate illegal immigrants fails to account for capital or plant and maintenance costs. By law, these costs are not covered by tuition but must be provided for by local sources.
Proponents try to deflect controversy by pointing to the small number (112) of illegal immigrants in the system when their attendance was last allowed. Evidently, the system knows the number of illegal immigrants because some campuses ask about immigration status on registration forms.
But if you’re in a country illegally, how likely are you to report it? Doing so could lead to arrest and deportation. Self-reporting and the lack of credible uniform verification procedures are two strong reasons why many people think the number of illegal immigrants in the community college system is actually much higher.
A March 2009 study of 600 four- and two-year institutions by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that more than half (54 percent) of the colleges surveyed knowingly admit illegal immigrants to diploma and degree programs. Nationally, 70 percent of two-year colleges surveyed said they did. Only 20 percent of institutions said they verify the immigration status of respondents.
Immigration advocates say the new policy will help the disadvantaged and improve our economy. How so? According to many studies on the cost of illegal immigration, illegals are a net drain on public services.
Our state’s unemployment rate is about 11 percent. Is it wise to allow the admission of illegal immigrants to community colleges when they cannot legally work here or elsewhere in the United States? Flooding local labor markets with more illegals will only hurt the poor and unemployed. Harvard economist George Borjas found that between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of some native-born males by $1,700. During the 1980s, the poorest of workers saw a 14 percent drop in wages while those in the top percentile saw a 1 percent increase.
While the N.C. community college system’s steps on this issue have been anything but sure, public sentiment is far from uncertain. Civitas DecisionMaker Polls in 2005 and 2008 found that approximately 68 percent of voters said they opposed providing educational benefits to illegal immigrants.
The admission of illegal immigrants will weaken the defense of our own borders, hurt the state’s poor, erode respect for the rule of law and serve as a slap in the face to the many law-abiding immigrants who have waited years to obtain citizenship. The proposed community college policy reflects the confused thinking of those who believe immigration law is a tool for helping the poor, rather than the rightful and lawful expression of a sovereign nation to protect its borders and people.
The American people will do nothing to stop the overtaking of our State/Country..Nothing!! One day Americans will wake up and say..What Happened?
If the people of America havn`t figured it out yet,what will it take?
“Home of the Brave”,and “Land of the Free” must be stricken from the song..those words are no longer true.
I`ll tell you just how stupid/Ignorant the America people are.I have yet to find one American that can tell me how several tons of metal traveling at 450 MPH can run into a concrete wall….and not leave one scratch,or,how every passenger on flight 93 “Evaporated”as we were told.
Maybe you can explain all of that to me.
Obama say`s that he will not give Health Insurance to Illegals..so! what will he do? He will make all of them Legal.
This is the first time in my 61 yrs that I feel embarrassed to be an America.
What are the unelected bureaucrats sitting on the NC CCS board who are actually public servants and are paid through our hard earned tax dollars thinking? Or, perhaps the better question would be…are they thinking of the welfare of the American citizen and the legal residents of North Carolina? Or, are they insulated elitists bending to the will of destructive special interests? We have 11% unemployment and climbing in North Carolina. WHY ARE THEY NOT FOCUSING WHAT STATE RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE FOR EDUCATING AND TRAINING UNEMPLOYED CITIZENS FOR JOBS INSTEAD OF FINDING WAYS TO FACILITATE PLACING ILLEGAL ALIENS INTO OUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM?
It is beyond the pale that citizen taxpayers are already forced by a miscreant Supreme Court decision to educate illegal alien children through high school and you want to extend educational benefits to illegals in college! Don’t even begin the argument that they will pay their own way because that is absurd. Don’t forget, illegal aliens are called illegal because they are illegally present in the country. Providing educational benefits to illegals only begets more illegal immigration just as providing free medical services, employment, and anchor baby citizenship that opens our entire welfare benefit system to the family.
As a citizen of North Carolina, I am appalled by the State Board allowing illegal aliens to attend our community colleges. It is violation of law that illegal aliens are allowed into colleges at all. I would argue that it is in violation of the ‘aiding and abetting’ statute in the 1986 IRCA (Immigration Reform and Control Act). Even if illegal aliens were to pay out of state tuition, it would not cover the entire cost of their education because of capital costs, often not figured fully into the total cost calculations per student. Therefore, taxpayer subsidization of illegal aliens would occur. Also, why would the Board allow an illegal alien to take a seat in college from a deserving American citizen or legal immigrant? Seats in all of our post-secondary facilities are a limited and highly coveted resource, so why would you put an illegal alien into one? Why should we be in the business of educating and training a group of people who are illegally here and cannot legally be employed? Could they unequivocally state and prove that not one single tax dollar would be used and not one single citizen or LEGAL immigrant would be affected by illegal aliens attending our community colleges? This decision flies in the face of the rule of law. Instead, we should demand that that illegals are not entering the system by requiring the use of verification tools. I recommend mandating the use of the S.A.V.E (Systematic Alien Verification Entitlements) System to certify all applicants are legally present in the U.S.
Furthermore, the people of NC are opposed to allowing illegals to attend community college, as illustrated by the Civitas Institute Decision Maker Poll Results of NC voters:
– 68% of N.C. voters oppose allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community colleges (February 2008).
Another poll just released this week by the American Council for Immigration Reform (ANCIR) indicates that 78% of Americans are against amnesty for illegal aliens with the same percentage stating that they believe illegals have had a substantial negative impact on the quality and cost of our health care system. Obviously, you can infer that Americans do not want illegals in our educational system beyond which we are already federally coerced to do so.
The statements you hear from advocates for illegal aliens in favor of them having access to our colleges generally flow around their claim that better educated illegals will be more productive and will assimilate better into our society. This is not only fuzzy thinking, it is faulty logic. It’s very precept is that the illegal gets additional benefits to what they have already enjoyed by illegally remaining and operating here and gives a segment of them what they want – unfettered access to our higher education system (in addition to our primary and secondary education system that they have already utilized). This, of course, will be costly to the American taxpayer whether the illegal pays out of state tuition or not. It also deprives a deserving citizen or legal immigrant of the seat that the illegal would occupy. Another marketing campaign is that a child should not be penalized because of the ‘sins’ of their parents. Allowing access to higher education, however, allows the child to benefit from the fact their parents broke the law and continue to remain here illegally.
I take exception to NCCCS reporting that ‘only’ a hundred or so illegal aliens are currently enrolled. This is a false and hollow number because it relies on self-reporting and not many illegal immigrants are going to truthfully report their immigration status. I do not believe the admissions office takes any action to investigate or determine status. The number is much larger than what they are officially reporting, and likely numbers in the thousands.
Admitting illegal immigrants to our community colleges is a slap in the face and a hit in the pocketbook to citizens, legal immigrants and their children. It is apparent that the NC CCS board is willfully unwilling to stand up for the rule of law and the LEGAL residents of North Carolina. They obviously have no concept of the definition of “illegal” when coupled with the term immigrant in rendering their egregiously infuriating decision.