Virginia would ban illegal immigrants from attending state-funded colleges and universities if legislation filed last week becomes law.
The bill would require the institutions of higher learning to verify the legal status of every student they admit. Lawmakers have unsuccessfully sought to ban illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition rates in previous years, but this legislation would not allow them to attend public colleges at all.
The measure, one of many dealing with illegal immigration that lawmakers will consider when they convene in January, is part of an aggressive agenda Republicans in the House of Delegates announced in the summer.
“Permitting illegal aliens to circumvent the rule of law not only undermines the integrity and well-being of our society and stretches thin, limited taxpayer resources at all levels of government, but is an injustice to those immigrants who followed the lawful path in coming to Virginia and the United States,” said House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford.
Institutions do not always know whether their applicants are in the country illegally.
Dan Walsch, a spokesman for George Mason University, said students have to prove they have a permanent residence by showing documents such as a utility bill but do not have to prove their legal immigrant status.
Claire Guthrie Castagna, the head of the Coalition for Immigration Reform’s Virginia chapter, said the bill is unnecessary. Higher-education institutions already have the authority not to admit illegal aliens if they don’t want to, she said.
“It’s political pabulum,” she said. “All it would do is take hope away from children who are deciding between staying in school or joining a gang. We would be punishing children because their parents broke the law and brought them here.”
