Illegal immigrants would continue to have access to state universities and community colleges under legislation filed Tuesday by Reps. Pricey Harrison, Paul Luebke and Rick Glazier.
Their bill would prevent the UNC Board of Governors and the State Board of Community Colleges from requiring prospective students to disclose their immigration status, Dan Kane reports.
The bill does not prevent the universities and community colleges from charging much higher out-of-state rates for students who are not U.S. citizens. That is current practice.
The legislation counters two other bills filed this session by Republican lawmakers that would prevent illegal immigrants from attending the state's universities and community colleges. The issue of those students' admission first surfaced late last year when the community college system announced a new policy telling all 58 campuses that they should admit students regardless of their immigration status.
The national furor over that announcement led the system to get an opinion from state Attorney General Roy Cooper's office. That subsequent opinion found that the system could not admit illegal immigrants. The system has now announced it would no longer admit them. UNC officials say the issue still isn't settled and therefore have not changed their policy to admit illegal immigrants.
Both the community colleges and the UNC system say a tiny percentage of their students are illegal immigrants.
Gov. Mike Easley has come out against barring these students from attending community colleges and UNC schools.
Harrison of Greensboro, Luebke of Durham and Glazier of Fayetteville are all Democrats.


Re: Bill would prevent immigration inquiries
The politicians and their contributors consider United States and North Carolina citizens only as “units of labor” and the sooner we become a Third World Country the better for their “bottom line”! Our elitist politicians and their elitist political contributors will not be happy until they transform the United States into a Third World Country for most of our citizens while furnishing the Chamber of Commerce and all their Elitist Special Interest Groups with their supply of “cheap labor”. The politicians are providing “benefits” to the ILLEGALS on the backs of United States and North Carolina citizens through our assets such as the Education System, Social Security, and Health Care not to mention our National Security!
It is difficult for me to believe that the these people are members of the same Democrat Party as Rep. Heath Shuler, the author of the Pro American Citizen “SAVE” Act! It is my understanding that Democrats at the state level in North Carolina have made this decision, have attempted to block almost all enforcement legislation in the General Assembly, issued hundreds of thousands of licenses to ILLEGALS, and have pushed for other benefits for ILLEGALS and their supporting groups.
I want to see the candidates come out against these benefits for ILLEGALS joining Democrat Rep. Heath Shuler Pro American Stance! If you maintain your Pro ILLEGALS position you will assure North Carolina and United States citizens that there will be an immediate change in Raleigh because it seems that most Republicans at the state level are ahead of the Democrats on Enforcement of our Immigration Laws and Securing our Nation.