At the Governor's Latino Summit 2002 on Tuesday in Alexandria, Va., Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner announced the creation of a task force charged with studying immigrant access to higher education.
The governor created the task force partially in response to a memo from Attorney General James Kilgore to institutions of higher education in September, Warner spokesman Paul Reagan said.
The event attracted more than 400 representatives of Latino communities in Virginia.
Kilgore's memo to universities suggested that "illegal or undocumented aliens should not be enrolled in Virginia public institutions of higher education."
A 1996 federal law denying in-state tuition to undocumented aliens was the origin of the attorney general's memo, Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.
Event coordinator Walter Tejada said the Latino community is "very upset at the extremist position" taken by Kilgore.
The conference dealt with "health care, bridging the digital divide, Latino economic development, and educational access," Tejada said.
There is a common misconception that "Latinos only care about immigration issues," he added. "Access to higher education for children is the number one priority of the Latino community."
Although it is important to "understand all the dimensions of the issues of educational access," it doesn't make sense for the state to be funding higher education for illegal aliens when "American citizens in other states are not receiving in-state status," Murtaugh said.
But Tejada said the summit in Alexandria is a step in the right direction.
"The task force is a positive thing," he said. "It helps to have a healthy discussion."
A "major commitment" from the governor was not expected at the meeting, Tejada said. The creation of the working group was a sign of "admirable leadership," he added.
Warner has not taken an official stance on the issue, deciding to view the task force's finding to better understand the issue, Reagan said.
The Governor's Latino Summit will be an annual event, Tejada said, calling it a "tremendous success."
The conference was a "historic opportunity to establish a dialogue with an increasingly large portion of the population," Reagan said.
The Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations funded the event.
The organization bridged together 28 Latino organizations, forming an "unprecedented united front," Tajeda said.
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