Illegal immigrants allowed to enroll in U.S. community colleges: A smart move?

North Carolina’s community college system voted this week to admit illegal immigrants at its campuses next year, a move that has brought equally enthusiastic praise and condemnation from both sides of the aisle. The controversy surrounding this decision is not the least bit surprising; illegal immigration is, after all, a hot-button issue. Many get their feathers all ruffled up just thinking about an “illegal alien” enjoying the rights and privileges of American citizenship just for crossing the border into our country. And let’s face it, the image they paint — the lazy, unproductive, get-something-for-doing-nothing Latino who sneaks into the U.S., has 18 children, and lives off the government — does seem like a problematic one. But is it realistic? Not in my experience. I live in San Diego and have met several documented and undocumented Mexican immigrants. The one thing they all have in common? A strong work ethic.

Quite frankly, the personality type described by the anti-immigrant crowd does not very well capture the personality type of the immigrants who come to this country. Lazy, unproductive Latinos, Asians, Europeans, and Africans generally do not cross oceans and deserts seeking to better their lot in life. Do lazy foreigners exist? Sure. Just as lazy Americans exist. (I’ve met plenty of them.) But, in my experience and in my view, the immigrants who come to this country are overwhelmingly productive and hard-working, and contribute to society enormously.

So was the North Carolina community college system’s decision a correct one? It’s a tough call. The changes are not designed to reward adult law breakers, but rather to focus on children who entered the country illegally with their parents and didn’t make the decision to come to America. But that policy hardly gives comfort to those opposed to the children’s parents being here in the first place.

There are a couple safety measures built into the rules, however. Illegal immigrants will only be allowed to enroll, for example, if they graduated from a U.S. high school. They will also have to pay the out-of-state tuition rate, which is nearly five times the in-state rate.  In addition, they also will not qualify for financial aid or take the place of students who are legally in the U.S. on crowded campuses.

Given these precautions, the decision seems like a sound one. Refusing education to any residents, whether or not they carry papers, risks fostering crime, higher birth rates, government dependency, and many other undesirable results that come along with lack of education. On the other hand, rewarding illegal immigrants with cheap or free benefits would give an incentive for more non-Americans to enter illegally. Fortunately, the decision by NC community college’s board does no such thing; the beneficiaries must pay the full price tag to reap the benefits.

Source