The State Board of Community Colleges discusses its policy on illegal immigrant admission Friday.

The policy has been in place since May, after the state attorney general's office recommended the ban over concerns that admitting illegal immigrants would violate federal law.

The board decided to reconsider that position after federal officials said states must come up with their own rules.

"There's been just so much back and forth, we just don't want to continue to have the possibility of another switchback," said board member Stuart Fountain, who leads the board committee studying the issue.

There's no federal or state law that requires the ban. But for months, the N.C. Board of Community Colleges has struggled with the issue.

"We hear on one side the people who feel that everyone deserves an opportunity for an education," Fountain said. "But on the other side, you hear people saying, 'What is there about illegal that you don't understand?' "

The board decided Friday to hire an independent consultant to help them study the issue and create a long-term policy.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, an ex-officio member of the board, attended the meeting via speakerphone and offered the motion to keep the ban in place.

Those who oppose the ban said they were surprised by the move.

"I was personally against the decision, but I'm glad our state board has come to a decision finally," said Jesse Presnell, of the N.C. Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association. "Essentially our community college system is based on the basis of having open doors, and it's kind of closing the doors that we have."

Tony Asion, executive director of the advocacy group El Pueblo, said he was "shocked" by Perdue's motion.

"Every study out there says the more education a person has, the less likely they are to become involved in the criminal justice system," Asion said. "So we're basically saying to these kids, 'We don't want you educated. We want you to stay dumb.' Eventually you're going to pay for this one way or the other."

He said students who are illegal immigrants "are our children, these are the children of North Carolina."

"There are just so many other positive things that these kids could contribute to the state and we're just denying them," Asion said. "What the lieutenant governor did today, to me, far exceeds coming across the border without papers. That is way more of a crime."

Fountain said board members must find out how other states approach the issue of illegal immigrants in community colleges.

News 14 Carolina found that North Carolina's four bordering states have three different approaches to the problem.

Tennessee and Virginia both allow undocumented students to enroll, but charge those students out-of-state tuition.

Georgia charges its undocumented students a special tuition rate four times higher than the in-state tuition rate.

Earlier this year, South Carolina became the only state in the nation with a law that says undocumented students cannot go to a taxpayer-funded community college.

Board members said their final decision will help craft a solution that will follow laws and regulations as well as fit the mission of the state community college system.

"We need to know how to navigate the minefield of legal entanglement surrounding this issue," Fountain said, as he addressed the board. "If we go too far, we are accused of infringing on civil liberties, or assuming the role of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. If we are forced to implement a policy of not admitting any undocumented immigrant under any circumstance -- how can we possibly implement such a policy?"

He said it would be almost impossible to verify the immigration status of the hundreds of thousands of community college students.

Although Fountain said no timetable has been established for the study, he hopes the board will establish a formal policy by next fall.

"There will be a concern on the part of some that we are doing a study and we're taking this opportunity to pigeonhole this question," he said. "No, that's not what we're about. We have asked that we have an aggressive approach to developing this study. Let's get this information back as quickly as possible."

Marco Zarate, the president of the N.C. Society of Hispanic Professionals, said the board's final decision has the potential to make history in North Carolina.

His group works to make sure Hispanic students have access to higher education -- and he's hopeful North Carolina's community colleges will return to an open-door policy for undocumented students.

"We are talking about access to higher education. We are talking about people, students, that want to do better in their life," Zarate said. "They are not asking for any economic support, they are just saying, 'Give me the opportunity to do better.' "

Administrators said 800,000 students were enrolled in the state's community colleges during the 2006-2007 school year, and they believe 112 of those students were illegal immigrants. Those students pay out-of-state tuition rates.