The Georgia Senate recently passed Senate Bill 458 which follows up on the legislation contained in House Bill 87 that the governor signed into law last year. The bill would bar illegal immigrants from attending all of Georgia's 60 public colleges and dictate when people would be required to show "secure and verifiable" forms of identification.

Many state colleges and universities have stated this type of legislation is not necessary because they have already instituted steps to bar illegal immigrants from taking valuable tuition spots from U.S. citizens. We doubt these leaders have put much effort into enforcing the concept of, if you illegally entered the country, you have no official rights and you should not be treated as if you are a U.S. citizen.

It is our belief that if the heads of our institutions of higher learning had, in fact, made an effort to protect the rights of U.S. citizens in the first place, laws like this wouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately, they are necessary.

We endorse this bill and urge the governor to sign it into law. We also urge our college and university leaders to spend more of their efforts on improving the education system in Georgia and less time on trying to circumvent laws that are meant to protect the rights of all legal Georgians.