It is up to North Carolina’s public colleges to decide whether they should admit illegal immigrants as students, according to a letter sent last week to the North Carolina attorney general by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The letter says that because no federal law covers the admission of such students to public colleges, state policy or legislation governs the matter. But in the absence of state policy, “it is up to the schools to decide whether or not to enroll illegal aliens,” the letter said. In a separate letter to the North Carolina Community College system, the North Carolina attorney general’s office relayed the Homeland Security Department’s findings and said that the colleges have the authority to decide on this controversial issue.

The letters are the latest twist in a debate over whether illegal immigrants may be admitted to North Carolina’s 58 community colleges. During the dispute, responses have Ping-Ponged between the governor, the state attorney general, and representatives of the community colleges.

The tug of war began in May, when the state attorney general advised the community colleges to drop their policy of admitting illegal immigrants who met other admissions requirements. The governor responded that colleges should continue such enrollments until federal law was clarified. The Homeland Security letter was in response to the attorney general’s request for guidance on whether federal laws banned the admission of illegal immigrants to the state’s community colleges.

In a statement issued on Friday, R. Scott Ralls, president of the system, said that he planned to work with the system’s board to decide on “appropriate, timely action” regarding the admission of illegal immigrants. According to a May estimate, 112 illegal immigrants are enrolled in the system out of 297,000 degree-seeking students. —Ingrid Norton