Board Votes to Allow Undocumented Immigrants Access to N.C. Community Colleges: RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina's community college board on Friday approved allowing illegal immigrants to enroll next year, a move that could drop a contentious issue in the lap of state lawmakers in an election year.The State Board of Community Colleges voted 13-1 to admit illegal immigrants to classrooms if they graduated from a U.S. high school, pay out-of-state tuition of about $7,700 a year and don't displace a citizen. The opposing vote came from Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.
The country's third-largest community college system has changed its illegal immigrant admission policy four times since 2000. The change on admitting foreign citizens comes at a time when unemployed workers are jamming classrooms.
But North Carolina also has one of the country's largest populations of illegal immigrants, with about 678,000 in 2008, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
