14 GOP senators demand regents close universities to illegal immigrants

Fourteen Republican state senators have told the state Board of Regents that they want Georgia’s universities completely shut off from illegal immigrants.

See the letter here.

The university system has argued that federal law prohibits awarding in-state tuition to those in the country unlawfully, but that it is silent on whether they can attend upon payment of full tuition rates.

In the wake of a Kennesaw State University senior discovered to be in the country illegally – her parents brought her here from Mexico when she was a child – the state’s universities have been ordered to check the citizenship status of all students by this fall.

The senators praised that effort, but said it was not enough:

However, we remain disappointed and perplexed that the Board of Regents seems to be engaged in verbal gymnastics in an effort to escape the obvious and full application of law. Persons not lawfully present in the United States are not eligible, regardless of tuition rates, to attend taxpayer supported colleges and universities in Georgia.

Beyond the clear inappropriateness of denying a legal Georgia resident an educational opportunity in favor of an unlawful alien, is the inescapable lack of wisdom in forcing Georgia taxpayers to subsidize the education of a person who upon graduating is not legally eligible to be employed.

Expect a raftful of immigration bills when the General Assembly convenes in January.

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153 comments Add your comment

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
11:46 am

Would love to know DuBose Porter’s current position on this issue. Anybody have a clue?

Where's Herman Talmadge When You Need Him?

June 17th, 2010
11:54 am

So these folks are here illegally, but want legal benefits and protections. Wonder how that would work if I sneaked into Canada and tried to go to McGill?

Andrew Young

June 17th, 2010
11:58 am

Close all the loopholes and remove all the incentives for prople to emigrate illegally. Oh yeah, and build that fence!

Georgian

June 17th, 2010
11:59 am

This is stupid. It is not a matter of IF immigration reform will happen, but a matter of WHEN. If these students/children qualify and earn their space in an institution on higher learning, then they should be able to continue their education despite having to pay their full share of the costs for higher ed with out of state tuition. This is simply mean-spirited. http://www.latino2010.org.

Hector

June 17th, 2010
12:00 pm

Do any of them play football???

SpaceyG

June 17th, 2010
12:04 pm

After Dubose Porter was outed as being anti-choice I stopped caring what his views on anything from fences to Tony Hayward’s sunscreen are.

louise

June 17th, 2010
12:04 pm

I know this will be popular with a lot of people, but we have to realize if these people are going to be here, they need to be educated. This is hurting everybody. The more educated our population is, the better off we all are.

Chuck Allison

June 17th, 2010
12:07 pm

Georgian, we hope that the inevitable immigration reform will result in hunting down all illegal immigrants and deporting them in chains. We also hope that the law will change to prevent those born to non-citizens here from automatically becoming citizens. We would like for immigration reform to contain at least a two year moratorium on immigrants.

Chuck Allison

June 17th, 2010
12:07 pm

Georgian, we hope that the inevitable immigration reform will result in hunting down all illegal immigrants and deporting them in chains. We also hope that the law will change to prevent those born to non-citizens here from automatically becoming citizens. We would like for immigration reform to contain at least a two year moratorium on immigrants.

joe

June 17th, 2010
12:10 pm

Close the loopholes, the college doors, and send them back to where they came from. If they wanna apply for citizenship the right way and want to come back then, they’re more than welcome to do so. Come back legally or don’t come back at all.

Really Old Dawg

June 17th, 2010
12:11 pm

Many of thes students speak and write poorly in English, and they are frustrated and often expect to be graded by different standards. Even after ESL classes, they are still very weak. Some of the students are here on student visas and just take a few courses so they can stay in this country. You are probably thinking of young people who have been to high schools in this country, but there are also many students who did not attend high school here and who want tax payers to pay for their educations. It is a very complicated mess, but it is certainly having a negative effect on educational standards in our colleges and it is costing tax payers money.
And no, not football; soccer.

A CONSERVATIVE

June 17th, 2010
12:13 pm

JUST ANOTHER EXCUSE FOR THE SOCIALISTS AT THE OBAMA-ATLANTA-URNAL TO GO AFTER REPUBLICANS..as if they needed an excuse to attack a the GOPs..

cc

June 17th, 2010
12:14 pm

it’s 2010 and we’re just at this point, wow, how inept! never should’ve had amnesty and should hold people accountable for crimes they commit. can’t have homeland security without border security. you know how to get mexico to negotiate and deal with this situation fairly? make our immigration laws the same as theirs, to the letter! if an american can’t go to mexico and buy land, send their non-spanish kids to school, can’t get free medical treatment and can’t get their government to pay us money, than their citizens can’t do it here. listen up, this is important, mexico is more of a threat to the future of this country than any muslim country. we shouldn’t be fighting wars in the ‘graveyard of empires’, afghanistan, the true enemy is to our south and that’s were our troops need to be stationed if mexico wants to continue down the same path. if we get the hell out of the middle east and south asia and become more energy independent or many more things than just oil, we wouldn’t have to deal with those idiots, and we wouldn’t have them so mad at us. it’s a simple as this: if you think someone is an a-hole, stop going over to their house! shut that jerk out of your life. that’s what we should do with the islamic world, we don’t need them. we just need to stop fighting amongst ourselves, get our act together and start using common sense, not corporate sense.

Dawgbone

June 17th, 2010
12:14 pm

We all know what we want…no more! Is there anyone in Washington that understands “no more”? All the drugs, guns, expense, etc….go to a health department..what do you see…can you speak the language there? NO MORE!

James in Athens

June 17th, 2010
12:15 pm

We need to be more like SC Schools and not let the
illegals in our schools period. Im sick of it and
most American’s are too… Paying for their schooling,
hospital emergency’s, etc. Im 100% with what Arizona
has done and hopefully Georgia will follow their lead
in the next session… I really don’t care if your
Republican or Demoract just make it happen cause if you
don’t your time in office will be short lived. I will
vote for new canidates only in 2010 and Im sure a lot
of other people will as well….

GM

June 17th, 2010
12:15 pm

What is it about the word immigration that brings all the klan trash out of the closet?

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
12:17 pm

With the well-spoken Carol as his blessed bride I cannot believe DuBose Porter is willing to say an incest or rape victim should be denied a medically sound abortion. If he does agree with GRTL and Rome’s pedophile priesthood he will no longer have my support.

It’s bad enough some of his votes, according to VoteSmart, are not vociferously anti-illegal immigration.

Who is better?

about time

June 17th, 2010
12:17 pm

It is not the responsibility of the University System to check citizenship. Their purpose is to educate!

November

June 17th, 2010
12:18 pm

Folks, if you’re here illegally, you should not be entitled to an education here. Go back to your home country and let your own government educate you. This is not “mean spirited”…..it only makes economic sense.

Downtowner

June 17th, 2010
12:19 pm

Georgian, at 11:59: “…despite having to pay their full share of the costs for higher ed with out of state tuition.”

But they don’t pay their full share of costs. No college student does. The institution always has to pay some of the costs, which they do with taxpayer funds. The colleges/Universities are having real funding problems right now. Why should they also have to supplement the out-of-state tuition of illegal immigrants?

hollywould

June 17th, 2010
12:20 pm

GM, it is not the word “immigration” It is the word in front of it. ILLEGAL, can you understand that meaning?

Chris

June 17th, 2010
12:21 pm

There is NOTHING wrong with this at all! Every illegal needs to get the heck ouu of our country. All they do are cause problems, have 100 kids, cause crime, and not pay taxes. That loser girl from KSU needs to get the heck out also. I am so sick of these brownies coming here and acting like we OWE them something. Leave!

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
12:21 pm

It’s “klan trash” who read “The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry’s” openly published stratagem by the Roman Catholic Church to promote illegal immigration of Hispanic Roman Catholics to subvert the American Constitution and People?

You calling America’s Founder, Thomas Jefferson, “klan trash?”

To Samuel Kercheval Monticello, January 19, 1810 SIR, — Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet inclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandising their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.

If so, perhaps you should spell out your real name.

Hector

June 17th, 2010
12:22 pm

Everybody has to be somewhere!!!

Real America

June 17th, 2010
12:25 pm

Pilgrims are really funny….”our country”….LMAO

AN ANGRY BLACK MAN!

June 17th, 2010
12:26 pm

Yeah excellent article. The board of Regents is a government handout dependent entity that RIPS of students with the same gymnastics of words. They suck! Notice that when ever the government does anything financially for students to lift the country’ s education standard almost instantly Regents announce they will increase rates. They are like leeches suck all the hope out of student who is left financially FCUKED! Unless you broke into the country illegally.

Also how pathetic is the AJC for publishing a lying article about the growth of diversity in Gwinnett county? The only growth thats happening here is the over running of illegal aliens 97% from MEXICO. Theres no diversity here just a sanctuary county. WTF!

We wrote laws 2 years ago and then the county went behind close doors and promises the Illegal Alien Co-conspirators that they would not enforce the laws. What a joke. You are wasting the tax payers money writing laws YOU KNOW YOU WONT ENFORCE. Azzs holes! Fire every one of you. Giving away every thing my mom and dad shed blood sweat and tears for. F. U. legislators!

Look at my neighborhood now. 6 cars in a single family home drive way, property value down, we now have to pay added trash tax because the illegals just throw their trash in the street. They cant read common street sign and are just as much a hazard driving 10 miles under the speed limit (trying not to get stopped…Hmmm hey police did it every occur to you….). We pass law the Perdue signed into law saying no food stamps for illegals but every time im in the store I watch my tax dollar at work with illegals and the “anchor” babies in front of me buying more groceries than me at my tax paying expense…WTF

FIRE OBAMA!

Mike

June 17th, 2010
12:28 pm

Illegals are everywhere so why not in our colleges? An illegal person shouldn’t be able to take the place of a citizen in our schools. If they are illegal, ship them back.

AN ANGRY BLACK MAN!

June 17th, 2010
12:29 pm

about time

June 17th, 2010
12:17 pm

It is not the responsibility of the University System to check citizenship. Their purpose is to educate!

IDIOT IF THEY ARE EDUCATORS THEY SHOULD BE EDUCATED AND KNOW THE LAWS FOOL. YOU DID NOT GO TO SCHOOL DID YOU?

Bilbo

June 17th, 2010
12:31 pm

Amen to the letter and pass the ammunition. When will people realize we are already at war on our southern border like it ot not. will you be ready to fight when they reach Macon or Columbus ?

Deborah

June 17th, 2010
12:32 pm

Wish they would look into eliminating tuition waivers (free tuition) for graduate students who aren’t US citizens!

Doug

June 17th, 2010
12:35 pm

They are not illegal immigrants, they are just simply illegal. Please work on a way to send them home, deny USA citizenship to anyone that is here illegally, and quit rewarding the illegal crossing of our borders by granting citizenship on anyone born on US territory, whether they had a legal reason to be here or not.

Rob Teilhet

June 17th, 2010
12:38 pm

The United States should not allow criminals (i.e. all illegal aliens) who are in this country to attend any school, from kindergarten to college. They should be arrested and deported. It’s incredible that there is even a discussion about this. Either we are a nation of laws or I should feel free to just ignore the ones I don’t like or agree with.

AN ANGRY BLACK MAN!

June 17th, 2010
12:38 pm

*We pass law that Governor Perdue signs saying no food stamps for illegals. but every time im in the store I watch my tax dollar at work with illegals and the “anchor” babies in front of me buying more groceries than me at my tax paying expense…WTF

ENFORCE THE LAW!

WE DONT NEED IMMIGRATION REFORM ENFORCE THE EXISTING LAWS!

THERE IS ALREADY A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP ITS CALL ” APPLY THROUGH THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT”

Application was rejected

June 17th, 2010
12:39 pm

Is it fair for the college bound children who are here legally, who have paid taxes, obeyed the laws, did everything “right” but were denied space in a college or university for someone who disobeyed the laws and is here in this country illegally??

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
12:40 pm

What Bilbo says is true. The families of Rome believe they “own” the world and have lived in the same castles, on the same hills, for two and three thousand years, overseeing the largest cash-flow in history: the Roman Catholic Church.

The Rockefellers and Bushes work FOR them. If Rome turned of “the spigot” of collection plate monies, their Organized Crime would no longer be able to fund the purchase of judges and politicians.

Rome has openly published their scheme for taking over America by promoting and protecting illegal immigration (though I notice the price on Amazon for “National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry” is skyrocketing).

Isn’t it “odd” that Roman Catholic controlled Big Media never mentions it?

AN ANGRY BLACK MAN!

June 17th, 2010
12:41 pm

if you make and baby while here illegally the baby is a by product of you illegal behavior.

The law of being born here automatically constitutes citizenship was intended for the already citizens. The law was not speaking internationally but to itself nationally.

Sick of paying for illegals

June 17th, 2010
12:43 pm

Next we need to get them out of our public schools!

Steve

June 17th, 2010
12:47 pm

About Time @ 12:14
I’m willing to give KSU a pass on not knowing their student was here illegally; after all the application only reads ‘Are you a Georgia resident’. Hence she didn’t technically lie. (The Application needs to changed to read, ‘Are you a legal resident of the State of Georgia’.)

However, once they learned she was an illegal alien, KSU needed to immediately bill her for the previous years she attended at ‘Out Of State’ tuition rates (just as they would have with a foreign student).
INS should then have sent her back to Mexico (with the other illegal members of her family). Once there she could apply for re-admission to KSU as a foreign student (her actual status).

Ga teacher

June 17th, 2010
12:48 pm

I would take a class full of the “illegals” your speaking so poorly about than the white trash kids you guys send me. 100% of the “illegal” students I teach work hard and never cause problems in class.

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
12:48 pm

E Pluribus Unum is America’s motto…fulfilling the ancient prophecy that a New Nation would rise up ruled only by Truth and Justice, into which all nations of the world would flow.

Like many Southerners I count myself blessed to also be a “hearty hybrid” with Native American blood.

As long as you share that utopian vision, as did those who peacefully greeted the “pilgrims” as a fulfillment of their own tribes’ religious prophecy, we can work together to rid Our Country of Babylon’s “Fifth Column,” whose evils, injustices, and treasons are easily catalogued and legend.

Real America
June 17th, 2010
12:25 pm

Pilgrims are really funny….”our country”….LMAO

Bobby

June 17th, 2010
12:54 pm

I understand that by order of the Supreme Court we are required to educate the children of illegal immigrants up to the 12th grade. Once past that though, why can’t we simply arrest them and send them home as they have reached the age of majority. I see no reason to permit them to attend Georgia Universities, public or private, if they are here illegally.

Let's Be Real

June 17th, 2010
12:57 pm

I bet a lot of yall are just upset that kids brought here(not by choice), who were raised in poverty, and speak English as a second language have lapped you academically.

cjames

June 17th, 2010
12:58 pm

Ok, so illegal immigrants go to college and get there degress. Then what?? If you are here illegally how are you going to use that degree in the job marketin the US? Unless you work under the table, don’t you need a social security number for a legitimate job? Unless you are using a fake number.
So are they going back to the native countries to work? I just don’t get it.

Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis

June 17th, 2010
1:01 pm

Bobby – Can you name the court case you mention? It would be one more treason by the SCOTUS’ Roman Catholic bloc, in service to the Roman Anti-Christ.

Rick

June 17th, 2010
1:13 pm

The Supreme Court case that directed the education of illegal alien children can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyler_v._Doe.

Andrew Young

June 17th, 2010
1:13 pm

Ga Teacher @12:48 – “white trash”? Really? Your bigotry is showing.

el jeffe

June 17th, 2010
1:15 pm

I never wear condoms

mrk

June 17th, 2010
1:16 pm

IT’S MANDATORY THAT THEY ATTEND PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND MANDATORY THAT WE TEACH THEM WHEN THEY ARRIVE IN K-12 SETTINGS, SO WHAT ARE THEY TO DO WHEN THEY ACTUALLY GRADUATE–GO BACK TO WHERE THEY COME FROM.

IT NEEDS TO BE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
IF THEY FINISH HIGH SCHOOL, THEN THEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO COLLEGE, EARN A DEGREE AND GET A JOB WHERE THEY CAN PAY TAXES.
OR
THEY SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO BEGIN WITH.

TO MAKE IT MANDATORY TO ATTEND K-12 SCHOOLS AND THEN NOT ALLOW THEM TO GO TO COLLEGE OR GET A JOB IS JUST STUPID. PICK A SIDE OF THE FENCE AND GO WITH IT.

lmno

June 17th, 2010
1:17 pm

There is no legal alternative for these people. There is no avenue for them to come here and work. If there were, then I would be all for cracking down on those who didn’t use the legal means. However, since there is not viable method for them to immigrate here, then they are left with no choice.

Not a Racist, but a Realist

June 17th, 2010
1:18 pm

I don’t see anything wrong with illegals getting a education. Hell, from what ive seen in my life they work alot harder than the majority of the young black males in todays culture. At least they TRY! Pretty sad when a group of people that dosent even speak ENGLISH pass you by in status and respect huh? Much props to the 25% or so that actually take care of their kids and women.