Monday, September 21, 2009

"Victory" for undocumented college students?

The article from Inside Higher Ed highlights one of the many inconsistencies in the U.S. approach to addressing the issue of undocumented immigration. North Carolina has agreed to allow undocumented students attend its community colleges, but with a catch: they must pay out of state tuition.

There are nine states that allow the undocumented to attend university and pay in-state tuition (Texas,California,Utah,New York,Washington,Oklahoma,Illinois, Kansas,Nebraska, and New Mexico).

My question is this: who benefits from limiting this opportunity for the undocumented? It serves to quell the most vitriolic opponents of immigration, but at a huge societal cost. The undocumented are most likely going to be long-term residents of the U.S. It is in everyone's best interest to help them to become the most productive people they can be--for the sake of our future as well as their own.

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