Seven Virginia public colleges and universities, including the University of Virginia, are facing a lawsuit after the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a legal challenge Tuesday on behalf of undocumented citizens, who the advocacy group says have been denied or will be denied admission at the schools based on their immigration status.
Last September, Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore issued a memo of legal advice to Virginia public colleges and universities advising them against admitting undocumented citizens.
"It's the attorney general's view that schools as a matter of policy should not admit illegal aliens," Kilgore Spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said. "However, ultimately it's the schools that make that policy. There is no federal or state law that either requires or forbids the admission of illegal aliens."
According to Trisha Talman, Southeast regional counsel for MALDEF, the memo also recommended that educators report students based on their "perceived immigration status" to the attorney general and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"An educator's role is to educate, not to determine what an individual's immigration status is," Talman said, adding that her organization drafted a reply to Kilgore's memo last fall responding to his assertions, and had hoped to avoid a legal confrontation.
"We've really worked since October of last year to try to resolve this situation short of litigation," she said. Recently, however, "we determined that the best way to proceed in this matter was to have a lawsuit."
Talman also said Virginia is an anomaly in regard to the lack of educational opportunities Kilgore feels should be afforded to undocumented citizens.
"The debate throughout the country and in Congress is not about whether the students should be able to attend college, because they are," she said. "The debate is over how to provide them with an affordable education."
Presidents and Board of Visitors rectors from the University, George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, Northern Virginia Community College, James Madison University and the College of William and Mary all were named as defendants in the suit.
George Mason University followed Kilgore's lead on not admitting undocumented citizens, but still attempts to aid them in gaining citizenship and educational opportunities, Executive Director of University Relations George Walsch said.
"Our policy is that if somebody is illegal, we do work with them to help give them guidance as to how to gain legal status," Walsch said.
University President John T. Casteen, III and other University administrators said they could not comment on the lawsuit because it is pending litigation.
Murtaugh suggested that undocumented citizens in Virginia who want to attend its schools should simply become legal citizens before applying to college, just as they prepare for the SAT or take challenging high school coursework.
"I submit that if you are an illegal alien, becoming a legal resident of Virginia might be one of those things you do to prepare for college," he said.
According to Talman, though, gaining legal citizenship is an extremely difficult process.
"It takes years upon years," she said. "There are individuals who have had pending applications [for citizenship] based on political asylum for 10 years."
The first hearing on the lawsuit will take place Monday in Alexandria, Va.
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