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RALEIGH — People on both sides of the immigration debate took issue with a proposal to change the State Board of Community College admissions policy for undocumented students during a public hearing Friday.

The board voted in September to allow students who cannot prove legal residency to attend the state’s 58 community colleges, including those based in Guilford, Alamance, Davidson, Randolph and Rockingham counties.

“To deny an entire segment of the population access to education is to institutionalize poverty,” said Jess George, executive director of the Latin American Coalition based in Charlotte.

The Community College Board could give final approval to the policy no sooner than its February meeting, said a spokeswoman for the college. The policy would then be looked over by the state’s Rules Review Commission. And there have been promises to appeal the policy to the General Assembly if the commission approves the policy.

Students, educators and others supported the board’s change in policy. But many said the Community College Board should have gone further.

The proposed policy would require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition. Students attending under the policy would not be able to participate in certain degree programs that result in state licenses and would be given lower priority for attending classes than fully documented students.

“There’s different ways of telling people they can’t go to college,” said Justin Flores with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in Dudley.

The policy seems to give the children of low-wage workers a choice, but the cost involved in paying out-of-state tuition would be prohibitive for most of those students.

“Telling them they have a choice without having the resources or having the ability to get loans like other students is basically telling them they have no choice,” Flores said.

Others objected to the policy, saying it would encourage people to come to North Carolina illegally from other countries.

“Illegals are breaking our laws,” said Ron Woodard of anti-illegal immigration group N.C. Listen, one of a handful that sent representatives. He said that denying entry to students here illegally was not tantamount to denying them an education, as other speakers had said.

“I don’t believe America is the only country that has colleges,” Woodard said.

Others pushing back against the policy voiced their frustration with the meeting’s procedures.

“This entire meeting is a sham,” said William Gheen of ALIPAC, another group that advocates for stricter immigration enforcement.

Gheen noted that the hearing’s first 20 speakers favored more liberal admissions policies and claimed that people with that viewpoint received preferential treatment in signing up to speak.

But community college officials said they signed people up to speak in order and that a line formed before they arrived at the State Archives Building.

The auditorium was not full. Judging by applause and other reactions, the 6-to-1 ratio of people who spoke in favor of less stringent policies reflected the overall mood of the crowd.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com