Regents’ lawyer on putting illegals in citizens and real immigrants university seats: “We’re pretty comfortable that our legal position is quite correct”
Gainesville Times
Regents discuss student residency
Tuition rate different for illegal immigrants
By Carolyn Crist
ccrist@gainesvilletimes.co
POSTED June 22, 2010
A new Board of Regents committee met Monday morning by phone to discuss how to verify residency and tuition for illegal immigrants attending public colleges in Georgia.
The Special Committee on Residency Verification is determining how to check students’ status so they are charged the out-of-state tuition rate if they are not legal residents, but other recently debated topics popped up as well — how to handle students who lie about their status on the application and whether undocumented students should be attending college in the first place.
A group of 15 Republican senators wrote a letter to the regents last week, saying illegal immigrants should be barred from attending colleges at all. Some lawmakers said they would introduce a bill to take action on the issue.
“I’m concerned that we can solve this residency verification problem but don’t necessarily solve the other large problem about the admission of nonresidents,” regent Felton Jenkins said. “That’s a big question that somebody needs to answer.”
While some committee members questioned whether the decision even falls under their power, others wondered if they should ask the attorney general’s office to review its policy.
“I appreciate that people can say what they wish,” Chancellor Erroll Davis said. “We’re pretty comfortable that our legal position is quite correct.”
But Cobb County immigration activist D.A. King doesn’t think it is. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society against illegal immigration, said benefits include more than just in-state tuition in schools. It includes any amount of post-secondary education.
“I can’t express my outrage,” King said before speaking to the Masonic Lodge in Gainesville on Monday night. “The law is made clear, and it’s fascinating that it keeps happening because of the no illegal immigrant gets left behind agenda of the board. It’s taking classroom seats away from our citizens.”
Rather than a question of mere legality, it’s a question of changing policy, regent Larry Walker said…
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