Colleges using coffers for financial aid to illegal immigrants stirs debate on immigration reform

Fox News reports:

Several U.S. colleges are giving financial aid directly to students who are young illegal immigrants, extending the debate about helping people in the United States illegally at the expense of Americans who are in need of similar opportunities.

Such opportunities have opened up since President Obama's 2012 executive action that deferred deportation to millions of young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. However, they still are largely ineligible for state or federal student aid.

New York University -- which receives federal, state and city money -- says the aid given to illegal immigrants is not at the expense of American students.

“This is not taking away from anybody,” MJ Knoll-Finn, an N.Y.U. admissions officer, told The New York Times, which first reported the story. “This is a formalized way of making sure these students know they’re welcome.”

However, others disagree.

"This policy not only encourages new illegal immigration, but comes at the expense of the college dreams of young Americans," Stephen Miller, spokesman for Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on immigration and the national interest, told FoxNews.com on Saturday.

Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Times that such funding has a "zero-sum aspect to it."

Attention college students and trial attorneys: you've got a major class action lawsuit here. Colleges can't violate federal immigration law just because they want to.