May 13, 2016

Policy Findings on Admissions Bans on Undocumented Students:

Georgia Board of Regents Policy 4.1.6 and Policy 4.3.4
By Geovani Serrano, Edgar Ortiz, Claire Bolton, and Laura Emiko Soltis
On May 10, 2016, three expert witnesses Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort, Azadeh
Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy Director for Project South, and Salvador Alvarado, an
undocumented student at Freedom University provided testimonies at a hearing conducted by
students at the Georgia Board of Regents meeting in Atlanta. Students voted unanimously to
repeal Georgias admissions bans on undocumented students based on the following findings:
1. Georgias admissions bans are in violation of its own laws and policies. Students with
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)1 have legal presence in the United States,
making them eligible for admission and in-state tuition rates in the University System of Georgia
based on the Georgia Board of Regents own policy manual.2 On May 10, 2016, the Board of
Regents issued a statement in response to the student hearing that stated, "Our policy was adopted
several years ago to mirror applicable law. That law required public higher education - including
the University System - to ensure that only students who could demonstrate lawful presence were
eligible for certain benefits, including in-state tuition. That law remains in effect, and, therefore,
so will our policy." Individuals with DACA status have lawful presence under federal
immigration policy, making Georgias in-state tuition ban of DACA recipients a violation of its
own laws and policies.
2. Undocumented immigrants pay state taxes but lack representation. If their taxes fund
public universities, they should be equally eligible for admission and pay in-state tuition
rates. Undocumented immigrants in Georgia paid more than $352 million in state and local taxes
in 2012.3 At this rate, it is estimated that undocumented immigrants have contributed more than
$1.6 billion to the state of Georgia in the five years that the admissions ban has been in place.
Despite being Georgia taxpayers and residing in the state, undocumented students and their
families are required to pay out-of-state tuition rates. This is particularly unfair given that Georgia
provides in-state tuition rates to residents of neighboring states who do not pay Georgia taxes at
all.4 DACA recipients pay taxes through social security numbers assigned with their work permits
and many other undocumented immigrants pay taxes through federal Individual Tax
Identification Numbers (ITIN).
3. The admissions ban is bad fiscal policy and wastes taxpayer dollars. Under federal law, all
people have the right to free K-12 education. State, local, and federal governments have spent an
estimated $1 billion on public K-12 education for DACA eligible Georgians over the past five
years. By banning these students from public universities, Georgia fails to capitalize on its

significant investment in undocumented students K-12 education. Additionally, when Policy

4.1.6 was passed in 2010, only 27 undocumented students were enrolled in the top five public
universities out of more than 310,000 students in the University System of Georgia, or roughly
0.008 percent. Over the past five years, Georgia has had to dedicate significant staff time and
valuable taxpayer money to verifying the residency status of more than one million students to
exclude less than one hundredth of one percent of the student body.5
4. Policies 4.1.6 and 4.3.4 hurt Georgias economy. The policies undermine Georgia Governor
Nathan Deals plan to create 250,000 additional college graduates by 2020 through the Complete
College Georgia Initiative. Based on a report by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute,
Georgia loses an estimated $10 million per year in contributions to state and local coffers by
banning undocumented Georgians from in-state tuition and restricting them to a low-wage
workforce.6
5. Discriminatory admissions bans harm Georgias reputation in the United States and
abroad. Georgias admissions bans are not the norm. More than 20 states guarantee
undocumented student residents equal access to public higher education at in-state tuition rates,7
and the nations most prestigious private universities actively recruit undocumented students.
Georgia is the only state in the United States to ban DACA recipients from public higher
education and the only state to implement both an admissions ban and an in-state tuition ban.
Georgia is now recognized as the most punitive environment for undocumented students.
Georgias moral standing on a global level is brought into disrepute when its capital city,
Atlanta, brands itself as an International City while simultaneously banning a certain group of
immigrant students from its best public universities. In a reputation-driven industry such as higher
education, discriminatory policies that punish immigrants weaken Georgias ability to recruit topnotch students and faculty in the United States and around the world.
6. Georgias admissions bans create a brain drain in Georgia by sending academically
qualified and talented students out of state. By banning academically qualified undocumented
students from Georgia public universities, these high-achieving students seek higher education
outside of Georgia, where they will contribute their earnings, in higher tax brackets, to other
states economies.8
7. Georgias admissions bans hurt current students enrolled at Georgia public colleges and
universities. Research shows that diverse classrooms benefit learning: undocumented students
provide vital racial, cultural, economic, and linguistic diversity to classrooms. In Grutter v.
Bollinger (2003), the Supreme Court noted that perspectives from different life experiences better
prepare all students for leadership and cultural competency in an increasingly globalized
economy.9 Moreover, educational segregation has negative long-term consequences for our
entire nation. The words of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall also speak powerfully to
the societal benefits of students learning together in the same classrooms. In his dissenting
opinion in Milliken v. Bradley (1974) regarding de facto segregation, Justice Thurgood Marshall
stated, Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever
begin to live together. In other words, if we aspire to build a fair and peaceful society for future
generations, we must start by ensuring that our children are able learn together in the same
classrooms. Georgias admissions bans only serve to divide young people, granting privileges to
some and punishing others, thereby undermining our shared values of equality and justice for all.

8. Georgias Policy 4.1.6 is in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of Fourteenth

Amendment of the United States Constitution. Legal scholars Shahshahani and Washington
note that the equal protection guarantee protects individuals from policies that promote invidious
discrimination, and forces state and local governments to justify laws that differentiate between
similarly situated residents. After an in-depth, peer-reviewed examination of Policy 4.1.6, they
find that even under the most lenient level of scrutiny - i.e., rational basis review - the Regent's
ban does not pass constitutional muster. The scholars conclude that because the Board's ban
tenuously connects to the State's goals, and fails to remedy either the express or implied rationale
for the policy, it should be deemed incompatible with the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution, and therefore overturned.10
9. Georgias admissions bans are in violation of international human rights law. Article 26
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states, Everyone has the right to
education and that higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.11
Article 28(1)(c) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed by the United
States in 1995, states that parties to the convention recognize the right of the child to
education and on the basis of equal opportunity they shall, in particular, make higher education
accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means.12 Georgias admissions
bans violate these undocumented students human right to education by denying equal access to
higher education based on their immigration status, rather than on their academic merit and
individual capacity.
10. Modern segregation is morally wrong. Banning certain students from admission to
universities based on markers of social status, rather than on academic merit, constitutes a modern
form of educational segregation.13 Georgias admissions bans unfairly punish young people of
color, most of whom arrived in the United States as children from countries throughout Latin
America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. For a state that is home to Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., who dedicated his life to fighting for unity, equality, and justice around the world,
Georgia betrays his legacy by upholding Policy 4.1.6 and 4.3.4, which segregate, discriminate,
and punish young people based on life circumstances beyond their control.

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-process/frequently-asked-questions
http://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section4/C329/
3
http://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Tuition-Equity-for-Undocumented-Students-Report.pdf
4
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/georgia-colleges-cut-tuition-to-nearby-out-of-stat/nkZKT/
5
Soltis, Laura Emiko. From Freedom Schools to Freedom University: Liberatory Education, Interracial and Intergenerational
Dialogue, and the Undocumented Student Movement in the U.S. South. Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and
Society, 17:1-2, 20-53. 2015.
6
http://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Tuition-Equity-for-Undocumented-Students-Report.pdf
7
http://www.e4fc.org/images/E4FC_Fact_Sheet.pdf
8
http://www.wiche.edu/info/gwypf/bell_economicDevelopment.pdf
9
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306, 330 (2013), see page 26 of Shahshahani, Azadeh and Chaka Washington. Shattered Dreams: An
Analysis of the Georgia Board of Regents' Admissions Ban from a Constitutional and International Human Rights Perspective.
Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal. Winter 2013.
10
Shahshahani, Azadeh and Chaka Washington. Shattered Dreams: An Analysis of the Georgia Board of Regents' Admissions Ban
from a Constitutional and International Human Rights Perspective. Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal. Winter 2013.
11
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
12
http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
13
See page 34 of Soltis, Laura Emiko. From Freedom Schools to Freedom University: Liberatory Education, Interracial and
Intergenerational Dialogue, and the Undocumented Student Movement in the U.S. South. Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics,
Culture, and Society, 17:1-2, 20-53. 2015.
2