Community College President Scott Ralls indicated today that the community college system plans to revert back to its previous policy of admitting illegal aliens. The change will mark the 5th time in 7 years that the community college system has waffled on admitting illegal aliens.
In the meantime, the Policy Committee of the State Board of Community Colleges approved a motion today that would “employ an independent consultant to study issues surrounding the admission of undocumented students.” The motion must be approved by the full board, which meets tomorrow. If the study is approved the committee does not expect it to be complete until spring 2009, at the earliest.
The reason for the most recent change — which has yet to be formally announced — is the opinion, expressed by NCCCS attorney Shante Martin, that the previous policy of barring illegal aliens no longer possesses “legal sufficiency.” This opinion is based on Martin’s interpretation of a July 9 letter from the Department of Homeland Security. That letter, however, indicated that “states may bar or admit illegal aliens … either as a matter of policy or through legislation.” In other words, according to DHS, the current policy of barring illegal aliens is just as valid as not barring illegal aliens. Thus, even if no federal law bars illegal alien admissions (which is really an issue for the courts to decide), no law necessitates that the community college system change its policy either.
Given that the community college system has stated that it is going to admit illegal aliens, the state board’s decision to do nothing is a de facto choice to admit illegal aliens — and to ignore the will of North Carolina’s voters, a majority of whom oppose the admission of illegal aliens.
Once the board goes home tomorrow, they may well take comfort in the fact that not a single illegal alien has been barred from attending community college in North Carolina. After all, the policy barring illegals grandfathered current attendees. That policy was issued in May. And now that the fall semester is set to begin, the open-door policy will be reinstated.
Tune in tomorrow for a further update …
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