Recently, it has been widely reported that there are very few illegal aliens in both the University of North Carolina system and our community colleges.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: “Community College System officials say a recent survey showed that only 112 of 297,000 degree-seeking students were illegal immigrants. The University of North Carolina system says 27 of its 200,000 students are here illegally.“

The public is being told that this issue is not very important because so few illegal aliens are in our community colleges.

I find this very interesting because to my knowledge, our colleges are not designed to determine legal status of applicants and that provision has never been placed into law or procedure.

In short, the system does not know how many illegal aliens are in the system yet they have issued these numbers without challenge or question from the media.

A survey? All illegal aliens please raise your hands? Such polling would be as inaccurate as surveying students asking how many currently have drugs or stolen property in their dorm rooms.

I would like to officially challenge these numbers released so confidently in press releases by our taxpayer supported state agencies.
The N.C. Community College (system) has now announced they will follow Attorney General Roy Cooper’s recommendation and not accept illegal aliens for admission.

That’s great — we need to know how they plan to screen applicants for legal status from this point forward.

If the system that released these estimates, have received wide press coverage, without the numbers being sound then the public needs to know that they did.

The public should also know if the system is not currently designed to detect illegal aliens.

If the university system does not acquire the proper training and enroll in systems like SAVE or E-Verify then this entire discussion is moot and illegal aliens will continue to enroll.

We likely have many more illegal aliens in the college system than the few hundred described here.

In closing, I would like the North Carolina media to determine and report:
1. If these numbers were derived through any valid process and to report if the numbers are suspect.
2. If our universities even have the ability at this time to determine legal status.
3. If we can get some coverage of a retraction of these numbers if they are inaccurate or derived by speculative methods.
4. How will our universities now determine legal status to adhere to Roy Cooper’s recommendation as promised?

I look forward to a healthy and energetic response in the North Carolina media to my challenge of this information.

WILLIAM GHEEN
President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
Raleigh