news-record.com

Slamming a door is an elbow-jerk reaction, a move perfected by politicians. Democrat and Republican candidates for governor absolutely, positively oppose illegal immigrants taking classes at North Carolina community colleges.

"I have a tough time getting around the 'illegal’ part in the immigrant," Democrat Richard Moore, the state treasurer, pronounced.

"The legislature should act quickly, setting politics aside, and address this important issue," Republican state Sen. Fred Smith urged.

"Setting politics aside" would slow down and cool off this debate, not trigger a mad dash to Raleigh.

The community college system may have misinterpreted a 1997 attorney general’s advisory opinion, as Gov. Mike Easley now insists, when it decreed recently that "immigration status" shouldn’t be considered when enrolling students. But that only calls for a rational discussion to sort it out.

First, everyone should realize that illegal immigrants aren’t crowding community college classrooms. Only a few hundred have been enrolled across the state, and they don’t get an in-state tuition break. There’s no crisis.

There is a challenge, however, as the numbers of immigrant children rise in public schools. The state is obligated to educate them in grades K-12 because of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe. The court ruled, in the language of the 14th Amendment, that a state cannot "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Many Americans resent that interpretation. But what’s the alternative to the principle of equal protection: to not arrest people who commit crimes against illegal immigrants? To let their children grow up unschooled?

Sure, schooling is expensive. Ignorance costs more. Furthermore, there’s a payback when people achieve higher education. A young person who completes high school and qualifies to enroll at a community college or state university stands a better chance of becoming a productive citizen, a taxpayer, a responsible parent. Someone who aspires to that, and demonstrates the ability to accomplish it, deserves more than a door slammed in his face.

Moore has a point: It’s hard to get around the "illegal" part of the equation. These are individuals who could be detained and deported, who aren’t legally entitled to employment. Is there anyone in Washington willing to resolve that dilemma? Congress should offer an avenue toward legal status for law-abiding, long-time residents.

For now, as long as North Carolina has a large population of immigrants, many illegal, its leaders should relax their elbows and promote a helpful conversation about making the best of the situation, not the worst.