Each community college in North Carolina would have to spend $8,600 per year to identify illegal immigrants among their applicants, a consultant has told the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges.

Meanwhile, the state makes $1,650 on every student who pays out-of-state tuition at the colleges, including most illegal immigrants.

The News & Observer, in Raleigh, reported that the board had asked the consultant to determine the cost of verifying students’ immigration status and excluding the undocumented.

The calculation is part of the board’s effort to gain a national perspective on the issue after a controversy flared in North Carolina last year.

The board had opened the doors of the state’s two-year colleges to undocumented students in December 2007. But citizen backlash led to a reversal of the decision in May 2008, and the ban has remained in place since then. —Steven Bushong