Five Georgia universities ban undocumented immigrants

As the federal government tries to make college education more attainable for undocumented immigrants, Georgia is doing the opposite.

The Georgia Board of Regents has decided to exclude undocumented immigrants from enrollment in the state’s five most competitive universities and colleges.

The policy was a reaction to an incident in May when one undocumented student at Kennesaw State University was mistakenly identified for in-state tuition.

At the time, undocumented students were not barred from any universities, but they were required to pay out-of-state tuition.

“There was a lot of public controversy and concern,” said John Millsaps, spokesman for the board.

But a study conducted over the summer found undocumented students made up only 0.16 percent of the student population. Of 310,000 students in 35 institutions, 501 students were undocumented. All were paying out-of-state tuition.

Five of those institutions will no longer admit undocumented students — despite the small number found in the study.

“We did not want anyone to be able to say, ‘You’re allowing them to take seats from qualified Georgians,’” Millsaps said.

The policy applies to the University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Georgia College & State University and the Medical College of Georgia.

The policy will not affect those already enrolled. A total of 27 undocumented students currently attend these five schools.

In the UNC system, fewer than 30 undocumented students were enrolled in public colleges last year, said Joni Worthington, spokeswoman for the UNC system.

Before the Georgia rule was implemented many organizations voiced their disapproval of the new policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union joined with 30 churches and organizations and asked the board in a letter to reject the policy when it was proposed.

They advocated to keep the former policy, which allowed undocumented students access to higher education as long as they paid out-of-state tuition, said Azadeh Shahshahani, immigrants’ rights project director for the ACLU of Georgia.

“We’re not talking about financial or federal funding — we’re talking about enrollment,” Shahshahani said. “Why change the system if it was already working perfectly?”

She said the new system could cause delays even for legal citizens who have to go through the stringent in-state verification process.

“Some schools are concerned about the process,” Shahshahani said.

The new college applications will emphasize penalties for falsely applying for in-state status.

Beginning next fall, the board has asked schools to verify students as in-state by checking their financial aid form or a national database for their residential information, Millsaps said.

“We’re still waiting for the specifics, and that will detail the process we will follow,” said Patrick Winter, senior associate director of admissions of marketing recruitment at the University of Georgia.

In North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona, undocumented students are required to pay out-of-state tuition. South Carolina is the only state in the nation that unilaterally bans undocumented students from enrollment in all public colleges and universities.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.