The U.S. District Court in Alexandria has held that Virginia colleges may deny admission to applicants who are living in the U.S. illegally, although the denials could still be ruled unconstitutional if the colleges fail to use federal standards to determine the applicants’ immigration status.
Immigrant rights group had brought the lawsuit in response to a memo Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, “a Republican,” as the Chronicle of Higher Education helpfully points out, had sent to public colleges and universities in 2002 cautioning them against admitting illegals.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Kilgore was pleased by the court’s ruling. “I continue to believe that it is not too much to ask that people obey the laws of our society before they take advantage of what our society has to offer,” he said in a written statement.
The Urban Institute has estimated that nationally there are between 50,000 and 60,000 college-bound high school graduates who are illegal immigrants.
Washington state, California, New York, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah have passed bills that let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition, and more than a dozen other states are considering similar proposals.
An earlier proposal to provide in-state tuition rates to illegal residents in California was vetoed by the governor in 2000. Based on Fall 1998 enrollment figures in the Univ. of California and California State Univ. systems alone, he said, “this legislation could result in a revenue loss of over $63.7 million to the state.”
Via Lucianne:
Each year, nearly 1 million foreigners unlawfully sneak into the United States. But don’t call them “illegal aliens” because that’s the moral equivalent of a racial slur, according to the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials….
I don’t understand the sense of “entitlement” that people seem to have. I am in this country illegally but I’m entitled…to what, exactly? Good jobs, free education, extra employment incentives? And please spare me the attitude that your ancestors were here first. If you take that argument reductio ad absurdem, we would all have to move to Africa.
Perhaps we should take the more rational attitude that education (real education as opposed to jobs training) improves the quality of society at large, and the investment in children–anybody’s children–is an investment in the human race. But please work with me; I live here too. If you denigrate my language and my heritage to push yourself forward, you have just increased the ill-will and hatred of everyone.
goodness, pushed my buttons, yes?
“…the denials could still be ruled unconstitutional if the colleges fail to use federal standards to determine the applicants’ immigration status.”
Now I’m confused. Are there standards other than federal? Isn’t this what INS is? I didn’t think the states had anything to do with immigration status.
This ruling is outrageous. Just what is the matter with this judge? How dare he require the universities to follow the law? Doesn’t he know that we are supposed to simply ignore laws that the Left doesn’t like?