"I believe that broadly available education has more social benefit than social cost," Ralls said after a meeting of the State Board of Community Colleges. "We just need to know the rules."

Some board members also said Friday that they want to open their doors to illegal immigrants but think their hands are tied.

"We have no choice but to follow the advice of the [state] Attorney General's Office," said board member Joanne Steiner, a retired executive from Wake Forest. "In this case, that's not where our hearts are. ... I feel very sad about it."

The system this week barred illegal immigrants from seeking degrees at all 58 of its campuses, a position that legal experts say is the most restrictive in the nation.

College officials based the decision on a May 6 advisory letter from Attorney General Roy Cooper's office. That letter said federal law appears to prohibit illegal immigrants from getting post-secondary education at state colleges and universities and recommended that the community colleges seek more information from the federal Department of Homeland Security, which enforces the law.

Several board members, along with Ralls, said they are waiting for the Attorney General's Office to provide more clarity on what federal law allows. Once they get that clarity, they said, they will consider whether to reverse their position on educating students regardless of legal status.

In the meantime, they said, they must follow the legal advice they have.

They said they could not rely on a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, made to The News & Observer last week, which said North Carolina has authority to determine who is admitted to its colleges.

Ralls said he met with the Attorney General's Office on Monday to ask whether the statement had changed their advice. "They said their advice stood," Ralls said.

Board members agreed that they could not rely on a statement from Homeland Security unless it came through the Attorney General's Office.

"The law is interpreted for us by the Attorney General's Office," said board member Jim Daniels, who owns a graphics business in Asheville. "Homeland Security's not the Attorney General's Office. ... If the AG changes, we'll change."

Officials in Cooper's office say they have asked the federal government for clarification of the law, which they called "unsettled."

The University of North Carolina System will continue admitting illegal immigrants at out-of-state tuition rates until the clarification is received.