Insider Advantage Georgia – a subscription website<\/p>\n
April 29, 2014
\nOpinion<\/p>\n
D.A. King: A “no illegal alien left behind” lawsuit and the Board of Regents<\/strong><\/p>\n Imagine that your eager, college-bound, academically qualified Georgia child or grandchild opens the mail and learns that he or she has been denied acceptance to the University of Georgia. Imagine admission had been denied because of a finite number of classroom seats\u2013 but that illegal aliens had been accepted instead of your heart-broken, wanna-be \u201cDawg.\u201d<\/p>\n Visualize the head-scratching shock of a proud, legal-immigrant family living in Chattanooga or Charlotte upon being informed that, to send their son to any USG institution, they will need to pay about three times the amount of tuition that an illegal alien from Mexico pays at the same Georgia school.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s Georgia, it is increasingly possible that these shameful imaginary scenarios could again become reality. All the Board of Regents has to do is\u2026nothing.<\/p>\n Good current Regents policy Implemented in 2010, current policy from the Board of Regents (4.1.6 \u2013 \u201cAdmission of Persons Not Lawfully Present in the United States<\/a>\u201d) was designed to insure that the above \u201cno illegal alien left behind\u201d system does not make a come-back to Georgia\u2019s tax-funded university system.<\/p>\n Note the term \u201clawfully present\u201d in the above regulation. It will come up later.<\/p>\n Currently\u2013 if the USG policy is actually enforced\u2013 the result is that illegal aliens are not admitted to UGA, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Georgia College & State University and Georgia Regents University and are paying out-of state tuition in the remainder of USG schools. <\/p>\n In response<\/a> the resentful illegal alien lobby has been screaming that the policy is blatant \u201chate\u201d, \u201csegregation\u201d \u2014 and my personal favorite: \u201ca violation of Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution\u201d and should be overturned by a judge.<\/p>\n With the intention of doing exactly that, Georgia immigration lawyer Charles Kuck has filed a lawsuit demanding that the illegal aliens in Georgia who are the beneficiaries of Barack Obama\u2019s 2012 re-election-year inspired \u201cDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals\u201d (DACA) be further rewarded with admission to all USG taxpayer-funded institutions and charged the lower instate tuition rate.<\/p>\n Kuck is also vice-chairman of the Board at the leftist Georgia Association of the Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) Corporation, which is the most well-funded, anti-enforcement, community organizing group in the Peach State. Originally formed by former state Senator Sam Zamarippa, the Executive Director of GALEO is Geraldo E. Gonzalez \u2013 or as he is known around the state Capitol, \u201cAngry Jerry.\u201d<\/p>\n Most Georgians are unfamiliar with Obama\u2019s DACA defacto amnesty scam and it was greeted with virtual silence by most Republicans both nationally and here in Georgia. The basics are that in addition to being promised that deportation proceedings would be \u201cdelayed\u201d for two years, the DACA recipients were awarded work permits and genuine Social Security numbers. DACA status is renewable. Indefinitely. But, according to no less than the official White House blog <\/a>and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, \u201cDeferred action does not provide an individual with lawful status.\u201d Kuck readily admits that the DACA illegal aliens now taking college seats from Americans are still illegal aliens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about legal status\u2013 that\u2019s an entirely different thing\u2014 nor are we arguing that these children have legal status, they do not. But they do have lawful presence and if the language \u2018lawfully present\u2019 is present in the Board of Regents\u2019 tuition policy and the federal government says that these children are lawfully present if granted DACA, there is no lawful reason why these children are not given in-state tuition in Georgia,\u201d Kuck told GPTV last year.<\/p>\n Rather like litigating what the meaning of the word \u201cis\u201d is, Kuck\u2019s suit hinges entirely on the perceived meaning of the terms \u201clegal status\u201d and \u201clegal presence.\u201d<\/p>\n The intent of the Regents 2010 action, not to mention American immigration laws, was and is crystal clear.<\/p>\n Simple solution<\/p>\n To easily end this ridiculous and volatile situation and to limit the state\u2019s cost of defending the admissions policy from the illegal alien lobby\u2019s lawsuit, the Regents can and should simply alter the existing 4.1.6 regulation to include the term \u201cstatus.\u201d That would mean Kuck\u2019s \u201cit depends on the meaning of lawfully present\u201d lawsuit would go away immediately.<\/p>\n The existence of borders and immigration laws creates winners and losers. Future actions\u2013 or the absence thereof\u2014 on this issue will provide a great deal of insight into the Regents\u2019 determination to decide into which category they put American students and families looking for a better life in their own country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n