Inside Higher Ed: New Salvo in Fight on Immigrants
Many states have debated the legality of extending in-state tuition rates to students living in the United States illegally.
In North Carolina, the debate over the legality of a more fundamental matter — admitting undocumented students at all — has only just begun.
The North Carolina Community College System set off a firestorm in November when it issued a directive indicating that all 58 colleges must begin admitting undocumented students under the open admissions policy. But the state attorney general’s office has now called for reversing course. The office sent out an advisory letter Tuesday suggesting a return to an earlier system policy, propagated in 2001, which limited enrollment of illegal immigrants on the basis that federal law restricts their eligibility for most state and local public benefits. “Postsecondary education is one of those benefits that undocumented or illegal aliens are not eligible to receive,” the 2001 policy reads.
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