NORTH CAROLINA -- State educators have temporarily banned illegal immigrants from attending community colleges, but some school leaders believe a permanent ban would be tough to implement.

"Arizona, for example, has found that community colleges have found tremendous problems trying to document the legality of all students based upon a ban of undocumented students," said Bill Ingram, president of Durham Technical Community College.

The State Board of Community Colleges is studying the issue. Last week, the group voted to keep the ban on illegal immigrants that's been in place since May. While some support a permanent ban, a number of administrators wonder whether it's feasible.

"We certainly might have to require additional personnel. Certainly it's going to take more time for students to be admitted to programs, potentially," Ingram said.

"We really don't know, the devil is in the details. But I'm concerned that if a permanent ban is enacted, there will be substantial additional bureaucracy, red tape. Additional resources would be great, dollars that aren't forthcoming certainly in this budget, and dollars that would take away the success of students in the classroom."

He said verifying the legal status of every student would pose additional challenges.

"I can imagine that a permanent ban on enrollment of undocumented immigrants might require all students to document that they are legally here in the United States," Ingram said. "That would require us to ask native-born students perhaps to provide documentation. That documentation might be a birth certificate and a birth certificate might not be available. It might require a passport and that might not be available."

Others wonder whether community colleges have the resources to check every student's legal status.

"In a year's time, Wake Tech will get about 40,000 applications," explained Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College. "If you spent 15 minutes more on each one, that would mean that you would need about three people, three additional people working, doing nothing else 40 hours a week."

Right now community college college administrators rely on the application process to determine who is a legal student and who is not.

"On the application they are asked a series of questions," Scott explained. "Among those questions are, 'Are you a U.S. citizen?' And if not then it asks what is your immigration status and it lists the different categories of immigration status on their application."

Ingram said students "who apply for admission to our programs have to provide evidence of their high school graduation."

"They assert what their residency is on an application," he added. "If a student is not a graduate of a North Carolina or a United States high school, they have to provide documentation. If they indicate a place of birth other than the United States, they have to provide documentation in our admissions process."

Ingram said about 20 illegal immigrants enrolled in Durham Tech last year. Scott said Wake Tech enrolled six. While there's no specific federal law that bans illegal immigrants from community colleges, Ingram hopes federal officials will offer a solution.

"I believe that this is a federal problem," he said. "A solution is going to reside with the federal government, and I think eventually a federal solution will be found."