Two weeks ago, North Carolina’s community college system was cast into the center of a national debate when it became the first in the nation to announce it would no longer admit illegal immigrants to any of its 58 campuses.

Attorney General Roy Cooper ruled May 6 that community colleges should immediately cease admitting undocumented students to degree programs. Since November of last year, illegal immigrants have been allowed to attend the schools, though they had to pay out-of-state tuition rates. Before that, the decision to admit illegal immigrants was up to the individual colleges.

Higher education organizations have called the move unprecedented.

“When I first saw the headline, I thought it was a mistake or joke or something,” said Dan Hurley, director of state relations for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. “That I am aware of, North Carolina is the only system that has made a decision like this.”

Hurley said the debate previously has been over whether to charge illegal immigrants out-of-state tuition rates. The decision to bar them altogether has moved the issue to a whole new level, he said.

“It’s really a whole other issue that hasn’t been seen, and it’s pretty far right of the spectrum, if you will,” Hurley said.

The decision has divided North Carolina leaders. Cooper’s ruling contradicts another ruling reached by the community college system’s attorney, who told the colleges to keep admitting undocumented students. The system’s lawyer asked the attorney general’s office to double-check his conclusion. After a five-month waiting period, college officials expressed surprise with the decision Cooper reached.

“We were thinking very securely that they would come back and say sure, fine — we felt confident in what we were doing,” said Audrey Bailey, public information officer for the community college system.

Gov. Mike Easley, University of North Carolina system president Erskine Bowles and the U.S. Department of Immigration have all decried or contradicted the attorney general’s decision.

So have organizations that represent immigrants.

“We’re disappointed and we believe this is a step backward,” said Marco Zarate, president and co-founder of the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals.

Other groups wholeheartedly support the state’s initiative.

“I’m happy that Roy Cooper has come to a decision to close the door on illegal aliens,” said William Gheen, president of the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Legal Immigration. “We know that schools are magnets and incentives for illegal aliens to come.”

Illegal students

The argument over allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in community colleges is largely one based on principal, since in reality the number of students affected by the ruling is low.

The state’s community colleges have only 112 undocumented students out of a total enrollment of 279,000, according to Bailey. The numbers in Western North Carolina are low too — one undocumented student is enrolled at Haywood Community College and two are enrolled at Southwestern Community College.

But the accuracy of those numbers, particularly statewide, remains in question. North Carolina community colleges aren’t required to check the legal status of their students’ citizenship.

At HCC, students must check a box on their application to specifically indicate whether they are United States citizens. If the student checks “no,” several other questions essentially lead the student to self-identify his or her legal or illegal status, said Janice Gilliam, the college’s vice president for student development services.

SCC uses a student’s Social Security number to document whether or not they are legitimate, said Gene Couch, vice president for instruction and student services.

“If the student can’t produce, then we start asking questions about are they a resident in this country or state, and that’s how we find out,” Couch said.

Out-of-state tuition costs are prohibitive to many students, and there’s no telling how many more would take advantage of the community college system if they were allowed to pay in-state rates. In-state tuition for a full-time student is $632 a semester, compared with $3,512 for out-of-state.

“It’s a barrier for a lot of students. It’s difficult — it’s about three times as much cost. It’s very prohibitive,” said Gilliam.

Kay Wolf heads the Adult Education Department at SCC, which includes popular English as a Second Language classes. Roughly 300 students enroll in them each year. Though the classes are free and don’t count toward a degree, Wolf said students are frequently interested in pursuing higher education.

“They talk to me about it all the time — what can I do, where can I go. I usually didn’t get too involved, just explained to them that they would have to pay out-of-state tuition. Most of them are undocumented, and so they realize their opportunities are limited,” said Wolf. “But many of them do want to get their GED and would love to be able to get a trade.”

Wolf said the students she’s had are tireless workers.

“They’re very eager to learn. They will work all day long, and then they’ll come to class and they’re tired, but still very, very eager to learn,” she said.

Deborah Gaddy, who also works with ESL students and heads up the adult education program at HCC, said she was “very disappointed,” to learn of the ruling. She too could not say enough about her dedicated students.

“Talk about good citizens. Even though they may not be citizens of this country, they’re incredibly dedicated and loyal. They rarely miss class. As far as our instructors are concerned, these are the preferred classes. They’re there not only because they want to be, but they have a drive to succeed. It’s a joy to work with adults with purpose and reason — they are always trying to improve themselves,” she said.

That will be harder now, says Gaddy. Though the number of undocumented aliens who can afford out-of-state tuition isn’t large, a few still took advantage of the chance to go to school.

“We have had a few that have wanted to start credit classes and have to pay out-of-state tuition, and now that opportunity is not even going to be possible for them,” she said.

Some, though, say taking the opportunity from illegal immigrants to enroll in community colleges means more seats will open up for students who are citizens.

“The bottom line to it is, college seats are limited. Resources are limited to admit illegal aliens into the system and run the risk that families who have paid in for generations will not get a seat in college at all, or be able to go to the school of their choice,” said Gheen.

Currently, the barring of illegal immigrant students does not extend to the UNC system of four-year universities. Those students must pay out-of-state tuition rates as well, however.

But Zarate says not all illegal immigrants are gung-ho about school, and that the fear they would steal seats from American students is unfounded. Even if they were allowed to pay in-state rates, don’t expect Hispanic students are going to be making lines to access the community college system, Zarate says. “Not everyone is here for a college education. We’ve seen in the past that the number of students accessing it are low.”

If they’re here already ...

Many are wondering just what is the point of banning illegal immigrants from community colleges? Even with an associate’s degree, undocumented residents would still be ineligible for scores of jobs.

“The problem is finding employment. That’s been the question all along — what kind of job could they get without being legally employed?” said Gilliam.

“Why in the hell would we train them for jobs that are illegal to hold? Are we going to train them to hold a job that is illegal for them to take and illegal for employers to give them?” argues Gheen. “I’d say that’s ludicrous.”

Hurley is all too familiar with that tune, but doesn’t agree.

“One of the arguments is that these individuals can’t gain meaningful employment after they graduate anyway, but that’s not true if they gain citizenship,” he says.

And according to Gaddy, students she’s seen “put themselves on a path to citizenship quickly.”

Citizens or not, many say the inevitable truth is that illegals are here to stay. Some have been here from a very young age and have no intention of returning to their parents’ home country, which they may not even remember.

“They are not going back to their countries. They came here when they were very young and they probably have no idea of what their country is like, of where they were born,” says Zarate.

And it’s not fair to punish the children for the illegal immigration their parents were responsible for undertaking, he says.

“They didn’t choose to come to North Carolina when they were 4 or 5 years old. Do you think they know they were breaking the law? It’s like punishing an innocent party. We’re punishing the futures of these children. We don’t tell the sons and daughters of killers and rapists that because your father broke the law, you have to pay,” Zarate says.

Since illegal immigrants are allowed to attend public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade, Zarate says it also doesn’t make sense for them to be prohibited from continuing the education they started in this country.

“At this point, (the system) is saying you cannot continue with your education, even though you wanted to,” he says.

And it doesn’t make sense to prohibit people from bettering themselves, and in turn society, says Hurley.

“From a state policy perspective, it’s about economic rationality. You would think that any state that has a person in that state who wants to better themselves and better their station in life, you’d want to facilitate that as a part of state economic policy,” he said.

“We can start educating these people later to be part of the skilled workforce,” Zarate agrees.

Adds Wolf, “I would like to see a program in place where they could continue their education because I feel like most of them are here to stay and it’s only going to help us as a country if they better themselves.”

An ongoing controversy

Currently, 10 states offer in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, according to Jim Hermes, senior legislative associate with the American Association of Community Colleges. The rest offer out-of-state tuition rates. North Carolina is the only state to bar illegal immigrants completely.

State officials are currently waiting for the Department of Homeland Security to weigh in on the matter before making a final decision. Until then, schools have been ordered to stop admitting illegal immigrants.

“We don’t make the law, and we try very hard to follow the law. The chief lawyer for the state has told us to stop doing what we are doing. The system that went into affect will remain in place for now,” said Bailey.

Hurley says he doesn’t think North Carolina’s ruling will be precedent setting or mark the beginning of a trend that other states will follow, but others, like Gheen, hope it will be.

Gheen says “the liberal Democrats in Raleigh have already made it very clear their eventual goal is to put a lot of them in schools and provide them with in-state tuition.” His organization fought against legislation (House Bill 1183) that would have done just that in 2005, which was ultimately defeated.

Other federal legislation that would aid illegal immigrants is slow to gather support. The “Dream Act” would grant conditional legal status to undocumented students who enter the country as children, Hermes said. The act was introduced in each Congress since 2001, but got its first procedural vote last fall. It has not been discussed by the House, though the Senate did pass it.

“I would characterize it as making incremental progress over time. It’s a general area of policy which has proven divisive,” said Hermes.

And currently, no one knows better about that than the North Carolina Community College System. Last week, both USA Today and CBS called Bailey seeking comments.

“This is a very polarizing, very controversial issue. Anytime you’re talking about immigration issues, everybody has a strong opinion,” she said. “And apparently, we’re sort of out there on our own right now.”