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It turns out there are far fewer illegal, or undocumented, students in the New Hampshire college system than Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) feared.

Sweeney’s response? Even one is too many.

Sweeney’s been talking for weeks about the fact that the University System of New Hampshire and the University of New Hampshire accept illegal immigrants as students. He argues they are potentially granting some of the illegals lower-cost, in-state tuition, which he says should go to legal residents.

The Salem Republican has been publicly calling on USNH to release the number of illegal immigrants enrolled in the state’s public college system.

On Wednesday, the university system released the number. According to a statement from the USNH, there are a total of three DACA-qualified students enrolled at either UNH, Keene State College, or Plymouth State University in this spring semester out of more than 21,000.

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy that gave people who were brought into the country illegally as children some legal protections and rights. It was instituted under President Barack Obama, halted in President Donald Trump’s first term, and brought back during President Joe Biden’s term. It is now subject to litigation and pending appeals.

Sweeney, the Deputy Majority Leader in the House, has been hammering schools over the fact that 2,400 New Hampshire kids have been turned away from UNH over the past four years. He questioned how many of those students were competing for slots at the schools with illegal immigrants.

USNH pointed out that more than one-third of students who apply at one USNH school also apply to at least one other in the system. 

“So, while a student may have been denied admission at one USNH school, they may have been admitted to another. In fact, USNH accepted 95.2 percent of New Hampshire resident students to at least one institution over the past four fall terms,” its statement reads. “The number of students denied admission to any institution over the past four fall terms was 1,083 individuals (4.8 percent) out of 22,557 applicants.”

And illegal immigration does not play a factor in students getting turned away, according to USNH Chancellor Catherine Provencher. New Hampshire’s higher education institutions have the capacity to add students and will accept all qualified New Hampshire applicants. If they can make the grade.

“Students are denied admission if they are not academically prepared,” Provencher said. “The last thing we want to do is have students paying tuition and possibly taking on debt if we do not think they will succeed academically. We do not admit any students from outside of New Hampshire at the expense of our Granite State students.”

Undocumented or illegal students do not qualify for financial aid, according to the statement. As for Sweeney’s claim that people in New Hampshire illegally could still be getting the lower in-state tuition rate, USNH insists they have safeguards in place.

“USNH students who pay in-state tuition rates must meet all New Hampshire residency requirements as set forth by the USNH Board of Trustees and sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that they are legal residents of the United States,” the statement reads.

Sweeney and other advocates of increased immigration enforcement are less-than-impressed by the “sign an affidavit” standard.

And Sweeney ally Rep. Ross Berry (R-Weare) notes the immigration status information comes not from federal records, but from students self-reporting their immigration status on a form.

“That ‘three’ number is self-reported. Does anyone really believe that every illegal immigrant in the USNH system self-reported their actual status?” Berry asks.

Sweeney has been sending around a screenshot of the UNH application website that states, “DACA students are not eligible for financial aid, but they can be considered for in-state status for tuition if they meet USH’s residency requirements” to back up his claims.

When NHJournal checked the UNH website on Tuesday, that language had been removed.

Asked Wednesday about the website change, UNH representative Tania DeLuzuriaga dismissed it as an oversight.

“This was outdated information that was posted under a prior administration and was overlooked until it was pointed out,” DeLuzuriaga said

Sweeney says the unwillingness of the university system to address the illegal immigration issue could have unintended consequences.

“If USNH won’t take this seriously, then it’s time to consider 287(g) agreements between campus police and ICE to restore accountability.”

The University of New Hampshire isn’t saying how many of its enrolled students are in the country illegally, and the university appears to be hiding the fact that some of those students are getting subsidized tuition rates.

Illegal immigrants attending U.S. colleges is nothing new. The Higher Ed Immigration Portal estimates that more than 407,000 undocumented students, including DACA recipients, are enrolled in higher education.

But with the state’s budget tight and the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) complaining about modest cuts proposed by House Republicans, Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) wants to know what impact illegal immigration is having on the system. He’s also expressed concern that the system’s willingness to take undocumented migrants might mean legal Granite State residents are losing slots.

When he asked UNH for the data on the number of students who are “undocumented, or in the country illegally,” he didn’t get the answer, he told NHJournal.

“They told me they don’t keep those numbers,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney wants to know exactly how many UNH students are illegal immigrants, and how many of those undocumented students are getting in-state tuition rates, or any other form of financial aid. 

“You can be in this country illegally and you can get a subsidized education at UNH,” Sweeney said.

When NHJournal reached out to UNH to follow up on Sweeney’s request, it declined to respond. Sweeney provided NHJournal with a screenshot recently taken from UNH’s admissions page that states DACA students can, in fact, get in-state tuition. 

“DACA students are not eligible for financial aid, but they can be considered for in-state status for tuition if they meet USH’s residency requirements,” the website states in the screenshot. 

But when NHJournal checked Tuesday afternoon, the information about in-state tuition for DACA applicants was missing.

“DACA students are students that came to the U.S. as children and meet guidelines in which they can work/study in the United States. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to request consideration of DACA. This determination is not made by the University of New Hampshire. DACA students are not eligible for financial aid,” the page stated on Tuesday afternoon.

For Sweeney, the concern is that undocumented students, or students who are in the country illegally, are taking spots at the state university that should be going to New Hampshire natives and getting the in-state rate. Tuition for 2024-2025 was $15,520 for New Hampshire residents and $36,170 for non-residents. 

Sweeney is concerned that UNH may have turned away a total of 2,400 New Hampshire applicants in the last four years, at the same time it was seeking DACA students to apply. Sweeney’s critics point out that the USNH system already accepts more than 85 percent of all New Hampshire residents who applied to UNH. The rates at Keene State and Plymouth State are even higher.

Eva Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, points to another math problem in Sweeney’s argument: There simply aren’t enough undocumented people in New Hampshire to ruin any Granite Stater’s college dreams.

“There are 88,000 foreign-born people in New Hampshire, and less than one percent are undocumented,” Castillo said. “I don’t know where this idea has come from that we’re being flooded by undocumented people.”

Castillo says undocumented students at UNH do not qualify for traditional forms of student aid, and they have to pay out of pocket for their education. Rather than promoting attendance, they face a barrier to seeking college degrees or specialized job training. In many cases, these students have been in the country since they were children.

“These kids are kids who have been raised pledging allegiance to our flag,” Castillo said. “I don’t understand what is the purpose of (Sweeney’s) attitude … These are not the principles of the America I have known.”

Perhaps, but UNH’s unwillingness to share its data and its decision to delete DACA information from its website raises questions about the real numbers on campus.

Sweeney told NHJournal he isn’t against illegal immigrants attending universities, he just doesn’t want them to go to UNH or any New Hampshire college.

“They can pursue education in their own countries when we send them back,” Sweeney said.

Dartmouth College joined 16 other leading universities in a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order, arguing that the travel ban has “damaging effects” on its research capabilities and is preventing them from recruiting and educating the world’s best talent.

The amicus brief was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, supporting a civil action brought by the attorney general of New York and several colleges including, Brown University. Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Duke University, and others.

The brief argues that “because [universities] seek to educate future leaders from nearly every continent, attract the world’s best scholars, faculty and students, and work across international borders, they rely on the ability to welcome international students, faculty and scholars into their communities. The executive order at issue in this case threatens that ability and creates significant hardship for [the schools’] valued international students, faculty and scholars.”

The controversial executive order was one of the first actions Trump took since his inauguration in January. He has vowed to keep radical Islamic terrorism out of the United States and he signed the order last month creating a temporary ban on allowing people to enter the country from Iran, Iraq, Libya Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, as well as a temporary suspension on allowing refugees into the country.

Supporters of the ban agree with the stricter vetting of immigrants coming into the United States and a tightening of borders. Opponents say the ban is nothing more than a religious test, as Trump tries to keep Muslims out of the country.

Lawsuits attempting to block the ban were quickly filed and a federal appeals court upheld a hold on the order last week, allowing for people to enter the United States who were previously blocked. Trump’s team said they were still weighing their legal options as they work to put the order back in place.

Some of the biggest news stories when Trump’s order was in place were from college campuses. For many students, faculty, and staff, their semester was just starting when Trump signed the order, leaving many academics from the seven-banned questions to worry if they would be able to return to their studies.

“Dartmouth College counts among its core values embracing diversity with the knowledge that it significantly enhances the quality of a Dartmouth education, as well as fostering lasting bonds among faculty, staff, and students, which encourage a culture of integrity, self-reliance, and collegiality and instill a sense of responsibility for each other and for the broader world,” the college said in the brief.

In the brief, the colleges argue that the order deters international students, faculty, and scholars from studying at American institutions.

Dartmouth claims 9 percent of its undergraduate students and 29.4 percent of its graduate students are international, with 15 students, scholars, and staff coming from Iran or Iraq.

The college also pointed to notable foreign leaders and diplomats among its alumni, including Kul Gautam, a citizen of Nepal and the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Paavo Lipponen, the former Prime Minister of Finland, and Gordon Campbell, the former Premier of British Columbia.

The brief argued that the order would “impede successful academic collaboration” in the United States. Since thousands of conferences and symposia are held at universities every year, they have become “incubators for innovation and thrive on the free flow of information and ideas.”

“A faculty member at Dartmouth planning a conference for next fall has expressed concern that participants may not be able or willing to travel to the United States, and one keynote speaker wonders whether it ‘sends the wrong message’ to attend a conference in the U.S. at this time,” the brief states.

Dartmouth has been one of the leading academic institutions offering resistance to some of Trump’s immigration policies.

College President Phil Hanlon and nearly 50 other college and university presidents sent Trump a letter on February 2, after he signed his order, asking him to “rectify or rescind” it.

“The order specifically prevents talented, law-abiding students and scholars from the affected regions from reaching our campuses,” the letter states. “American higher education has benefited tremendously from this country’s long history of embracing immigrants from around the world.”

In a campus-wide email sent on January 29, Hanlon advised students affected by the seven-nation ban to avoid all international travel.

In November 2016, Hanlon signed a statement in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Programs — a program where more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally obtained temporary relief from deportation.

Dartmouth students were concerned after Trump was elected that he would overturn former President Barack Obama’s executive order creating the program, so they started an online petition asking for Dartmouth College to become a “sanctuary” school for undocumented students. University officials pledged to protect and support those students “within the bounds of the law.”

It remains to be seen what will happen as a result of the brief filed by the colleges opposing the executive order, but university officials believe that “safety and security concerns can be addressed in a manner that is consistent with the values America has always stood for, including the free flow of ideas and people across borders and the welcoming of immigrants to our universities.”

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