Georgia Public Colleges Ban Illegal-Imimgrant Students

As immigration and illegal-immigrants become more common topics in current political debates, five Georgia public colleges recently passed a policy banning illegal-immigrant students, the New York Times reports. The ban comes after many lawmakers debate whether "illegal immigrants who attend high school in the United States should be permitted to continue to public colleges," the New York Times continued. The policy passed with a 14-to-2 vote by the Board of Regents, Georgia's top educational policy makers. New bills are expected to be introduced by Republican state lawmakers, which would make this policy apply to all state colleges.
After the DREAM Act was recently defeated in the Senate, this new policy comes as another set-back to immigration reform. This policy may also interfere with any type of immigration reform passed in the near-future, such as Senator Robert Menendez's (D-N.J.) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010. When making such policies that would affect education for illegal immigrants, lawmakers should greatly consider how well these policies may or may not work with possible immigration bills.
This recent policy also comes as a set-back, in general, to the education system. As active members of our society, despite being illegal, these immigrant students have the right to get a higher education. The more educated they are, the better they will be able to effectively contribute to our society and democracy. Many of these illegal-immigrant students attended high school in the U.S.; therefore, they should be able to go to college here as well.
If applied to all colleges in the state of Georgia, this policy would discriminate a specific group of people and deny them a higher education. This sort of discrimination should not be allowed after the many positive changes made in our society toward acceptance. The U.S. is a place where everyone should be considered equal and given the same opportunities, education being one of the rights that should be shared among all of those living in the U.S.