What’s going on and what does it mean?

Discussions and legislation around immigration are nothing new for our country — or other countries — but changes in immigration laws, regulation and enforcement have distinct impacts on institutions of higher education. As colleges and universities continue to seek and foster research and talent development opportunities across the globe, it is critical to understand the changes in status and regulations and how they affect our students, faculty and staff. Below is some background to help contextualize these continued conversations.

Population snapshot:

Here’s a snapshot of the international makeup of our campus and the UNC System, as well as our county, state and nation.

App State and the UNC System:

63

International students currently enrolled at App State

(Source: OIED, fall 2020 data)

4.3%

Percentage of students in the UNC System who come from foreign countries

(Source: IRAP, fall 2019 data)

Beyond App State:

3.1%

of Watauga County residents are immigrants, up from 1.9% in 2000

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014–18 data)

47%

of immigrants in Watauga County are naturalized citizens and able to vote and engage in the policymaking process

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014–18 data)

7.9%

of North Carolina’s population are immigrants

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014–18 data)

38.2%

of immigrants (or 289,662 people) in North Carolina are naturalized U.S. citizens, meaning they are eligible to vote

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014–18 data)

3.2%

of North Carolina’s population (or 325,000 people) are unauthorized immigrants

(Source: Pew Research Center, 2017 data)

13.7%

of America’s population, or 44.8 million people, are immigrants

(Source: Pew Research Center, 2018 data)

The national level

Within his first six weeks as president of the United States, Donald J. Trump issued three executive orders related to those immigrating to the U.S. The most discussed, as related to higher education, have been the two versions of “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” When first issued in January 2017, members of college and university communities across the country began asking questions — for which there were not abundantly clear answers. Questions continue, and institutions of higher education are turning to one another, to their leadership and to their own faculty and staff for information and guidance in navigating an uncertain, changing and, for some, unsettling landscape.

Read the executive orders here:

On Sept. 5, 2017, the White House and the Justice Department announced an end to a program established in 2012 by President Barack Obama called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. The program was designed as a way to allow children of immigrants who entered the country illegally to have legal access to education, to work and to obtain driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers. There are many restrictions to this access, but a simplified explanation of the act is that it provides these children and young adults with the same level of access to opportunity as their peers who hold legal status in the U.S. These children and young adults are also referred to as “Dreamers,” a reference to the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which was introduced in Congress in 2001 but never passed.

In a 5–4 ruling issued June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to end the DACA program. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. called the administration’s attempt to rescind DACA “arbitrary and capricious,” stating that the effort was in violation of federal procedural law. The ruling allows immigrants to retain their protection from deportation and their authorization to work in the U.S.

However, the ruling does not prevent the Trump administration from pursuing a renewed effort to terminate the program. In a June 19 tweet, President Trump said he intends to again seek an end to the DACA protections. The Supreme Court’s ruling, in full, is available here.

The executive, legislative and judicial branches continue to work through the issues covered under the DACA program.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website provides information about what DACA is, what has changed, and the application and renewal process. It also has archived information, including previous DACA updates, here.

Below is an explanation of what “deferred action” means, from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website:

Deferred action is a discretionary determination to defer a removal action of an individual as an act of prosecutorial discretion. For purposes of future inadmissibility based upon unlawful presence, an individual whose case has been deferred is not considered to be unlawfully present during the period in which deferred action is in effect. An individual who has received deferred action is authorized by DHS to be present in the United States, and is therefore considered by DHS to be lawfully present during the period deferred action is in effect. However, deferred action does not confer lawful status upon an individual, nor does it excuse any previous or subsequent periods of unlawful presence.

Under existing regulations, an individual whose case has been deferred is eligible to receive employment authorization for the period of deferred action, provided he or she can demonstrate “an economic necessity for employment.” DHS can terminate or renew deferred action at any time, at the agency’s discretion.

Read more information about DACA here.

The state level

At the state level, the North Carolina legislature is reviewing Senate Bill 341. The bill, titled “An Act to Repeal Law Enforcement Authority to Use Prohibited Forms of Identification under Certain Circumstances, to Create Additional Incentives for Local Governments to Comply with State Laws Related to Immigration, to Create a Private Cause of Action to Remedy Local Government Noncompliance with State Immigration Laws, to Prohibit UNC Constituent Institutions from Becoming Sanctuary Universities, and to Direct the Department of Public Safety to Enter into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security,” was filed on March 21, 2019. The bill, which has been referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate, includes language that would withhold state funds from any university that does not comply with existing federal law. View the bill here.

By and large, state institutions were created by state governments to increase access to education for their residents, and state governments have a lot of say in how state institutions are run — from regulating how they can spend their money to the specifics of pay structure and employment benefits of university employees.

In September 2017, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined a lawsuit challenging the legality of President Trump’s plan to end DACA. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, the suit seeks to block the government from using any “information provided by DACA applicants and recipients to identify, apprehend, detain, or deport any of them or their family members.”

Read the full Raleigh News & Observer news story here.

Additionally, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 29,000 North Carolina residents are recipients of DACA benefits as of June 2019.

What this means for colleges — public and private

Public institutions educate approximately 70% of all U.S. college students, and state funds pay for most of the operations costs. Because the cost of college is subsidized by the state, tuition costs are lower than for private colleges; thus, state residents pay significantly less in tuition costs. This is also why states employ boards and trustees to oversee university operations. Federal funding comes to public universities largely in the form of student financial aid and research grants.

Overall, institutions of higher education have felt the sting of reduction in state and federal funding, especially since the Great Recession. Nevertheless, even though appropriations per student remain lower in 41 U.S. states than they were in 2008, state and local governments provided nearly $96.1 billion in FY 2018 to support higher education, according to the annual 2018 State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report published by State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Association. This is an increase of more than $5 billion from the FY 2015 level.

The report also shows that state financial aid for students at public institutions has increased for four straight years, with an 8.7% increase in state aid in FY 2018 — the largest since the Great Recession. As a percentage of appropriations, state financial aid increased from 6.5% in 2008 to 9.6% in 2018.

Clearly, threats to reduce funding to colleges and universities are real, and loss of funding would have significant, across-the-board impact.

View the full FY 2018 SHEF report.

The legal and financial picture for App State State University

App State employees cannot willfully violate state or federal law and remain employed with the state of North Carolina. And while it would take a herculean endeavor to pull back federal and state funds from App State, losing this funding would have a devastating effect on our student body.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPDES) financial report published by App State’s Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning (IRAP) office shows that in the 2016–17 fiscal year, state funds made up 32% of the university’s annual revenues and the largest single source of revenue in App State’s budget. This works out to be $138,091,358 or just over $7,800 per full-time equivalent student. The second largest source of revenue is tuition, which accounts for about 29% or $121,958,398 of the budget.

The majority of App State students’ financial aid comes from federal funds, with 38% of full-time undergraduates receiving need-based financial aid through federal grants and scholarships and 50% receiving such aid through federal student loans. The average need-based scholarship or grant award is $9,162.

App State administrators cannot refuse to comply with direct orders from federal or state agencies without jeopardizing the future of the institution. But that does not mean they cannot protect the safety of international and immigrant students, faculty and staff. See “What App State can do, is doing & will do” for more information.

Academia’s response

Across the country, many college presidents issued or released statements about President Trump’s Jan. 27, 2017, executive order. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities has published a list of responses, which includes responses from some UNC System institutions and shows a range of responses. Consistent among them, however, are concerns about the potential impact on their institutions and support for international and immigrant populations among their communities.

Additionally, throughout 2017, many academics and academic institutions joined collective efforts to express concern about the sentiment and possible repercussions of both the Jan. 27, 2017, and revised March 6, 2017, orders. App State has joined in signing two of these letters — one to former Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly on Feb. 3, 2017, and one to President Trump on March 16, 2017.

Read the Association of American Colleges and Universities statement in response to the Sept. 5, 2017, White House DACA announcement.

Here’s where you can find the public statements App State’s chancellor, Dr. Sheri Everts, has made to the App State Community:

Public statements from former University of North Carolina System President Margaret Spellings.