Alabama’s new immigration law has caused mixed responses from the state community since its origin a few weeks ago. However, it is hardly effective in the UNA community.

In the past weeks, the state government passed a new immigration law that resulted in a lack of participation from people who could be questioned for immigration at work places, schools and other institutions. In spite of the statewide response to the new law, there appears to be no similar movement at UNA.

“(After the law was passed), the next day there were hundreds or thousands of students across state that did not attend school, probably children of illegal aliens” said David Shields, vice president of student affairs. “I don’t know if we have had that issue at UNA yet.”

“Everyone is here legally as far as I know,” said UNA Registrar Katrina Sharp. “It would be extremely difficult to be enrolled illegally and meet the academic standards we have here.”

Shields noted that the law would be more effective in public grade schools rather than colleges because of the large amounts of information a student must provide for documentation and verification.

“There are more layers for a student to come to a university than for a K-12-grade kind of person,” Shields said.

One of the obstacles that universities have over other schools is verification of social security, as Shields pointed out.

“If an application comes in and there is no social security number and there is no identifiable information that can verify that a person is of legal origin, then we are going to have to ask additional questions.”

The Office of International Student Affairs also confirms Shields’ remark and states that institutions of higher education make it hard for illegal immigrants to enroll in college.

Kim Mauldin, director of admissions, describes the process that a student must go through to enroll at UNA and their cooperation with the Office of International Student Affairs.

“There is a question on the application that asks ‘are you a US citizen?'” Mauldin said. “If they say no, then we send them to the Office of International (Student) Affairs. Any time when someone’s citizenship is questioned, we send him or her to the Office of International (Student) Affairs.”

Even in the Office of International Student Affairs, special care is taken to make sure that students are enrolled legally.

“As far as the law goes, it does not apply to us because our students have to be here with an F1 visa and a green card,” said Linda Allen, admissions coordinator for the Office of International Student Affairs. “Otherwise, they cannot be admitted.”

As far as the law goes for questioning, some students shared their personal opinions about the law.

“I think the law is a little harsh,” said UNA student Anna Brasher.

Shields and other university faculty find that they are not at a place to argue the law, but only take it for what it is.

“No matter our opinion, we must follow the law as it is written and passed in the state, and we’ll do that,” Shields said.