Written by:
Jordan Harris

U.S. Colleges and Universities Say No to Illegal Students

In the midst of the U.S. Immigration Reform, a larger public debate has surfaced. The nation's people are outraged by the vast number of illegal students attending U.S. state colleges and universities. The dispute was ignited by the arrest of the Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl in late March. Colotl was an illegal immigrant attending KSU on in-state tuition costs. KSU later reclassified Colotl as a non-Georgia resident, while immigration authorities deferred action on Colotl's status for one year, granting her time to complete her degree.

Illegal students occupying seats at American post-secondary institutions is a growing trend. An untold number of undocumented immigrants attend schools in the Ivy League, especially.

An undocumented Harvard University student, Eric Balderas was detained by immigration officials after he tried to use a university ID card to board a plane from San Antonio to Boston in June. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not pursue the deportation of Balderas.

Both Colotl and Balderas, along with most undocumented students, illegally immigrated to the U.S. with their parents as children.

Those in favor of the DREAM Act, a bipartisan legislation that would extend relief to young people who were brought to the U.S. as undocumented children and who have since, grown up here, stayed in school and stayed out of trouble, argue that illegal students have the right to attend U.S. colleges and universities because they are academically competitive.

I beg to differ. It is unfair to offer illegal immigrants admission to U.S. post-secondary institutions, while a great number of equally competitive and qualified American citizens and legal foreign students are turned away from selective colleges and universities every year.

It is an additional injustice that taxpayer dollars support illegal immigrants in their pursuit of a higher education at American colleges.

Fourteen Republican Georgia state senators said in a letter to the Board of Regents, “[It] is an inescapable lack of wisdom in forcing Georgia taxpayers to subsidize the education of a person who upon graduation is not legally eligible to be employed.”

In some cases, the money spent to support the college education of illegal immigrants will not find its way back into the American market because upon graduation, some illegal immigrants send the money they earn back to their families in their homeland.

As an African American, I am particularly disappointed by the growing number of illegal immigrants attending U.S. colleges and universities. I feel cheated.

Throughout American history, blacks have suffered persecution and have had to combat abuse, racism, and discrimination to gain civil and equal rights, especially in terms of education.

Minorities have overcome too much for people who are not citizens of this country to benefit from an American education that all U.S. citizens have worked so hard to obtain.

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