On his August 16 show, 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles misrepresented the content of an August 16 Denver Post column by Diane Carman about issues related to providing in-state tuition rates to children of illegal immigrants who are themselves U.S. citizens. Carman noted that according to U.S. Air Force Academy spokesman Gino Mattorano, “Disqualifying a student based on the immigration status of his parents 'would be considered unfair to the applicant.' ” Asserting that Carman “makes these quantum leaps,” Boyles misrepresented Mattorano's statement as referring to the immigration status of the prospective student, exclaiming, “You can't be an illegal and go to the Air Force Academy, for crying out loud!”

Boyles was discussing Carman's column, “Tuition tyrant should re-read Constitution,” with state Sen. David Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs), who was the subject of the column. Schultheis reportedly “is contemplating legislation that would prohibit U.S. citizens whose parents are undocumented immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in Colorado.”

As the Post reported on August 15, Schultheis said he would likely file the legislation next year after Colorado Attorney General John Suthers issued an opinion on August 14 “that says students born in the United States should qualify for in-state tuition, even if their parents are in Colorado illegally.” Suthers issued his opinion at the request of Colorado higher education director David Skaggs.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, several media outlets and figures -- including Boyles on his August 3 show -- have distorted Skaggs' advocacy of in-state tuition for the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, who are themselves citizens, as amounting to the extension of in-state tuition to prospective students who are in the United States illegally. Boyles repeated this pattern on his August 16 broadcast in suggesting that the Air Force Academy spokesman Carman quoted in her column would consider the immigration status of the student an unfair basis for disqualification.

From the August 16 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: It ends with this. She's -- and I, I suspect we have to place a call to Gino M-a-t-t-o-r-a-n-o. Now she talks about “among universities” and then she quotes, " 'There's nothing in our eligibility requirement that specifies the parents of candidates for admission be citizens or residents in good standing,' said this university spokesperson, Gino Mattorano." And then goes on: “Disqualifying a student based on immigration status of the parents, quote, 'would be considered unfair to the applicant,' he said,” and he adds, " 'That's just my personal opinion.' " Says it's a personal opinion.

SCHULTHEIS: Mm-hmm.

BOYLES: “The school's the U.S. Air Force Academy. Tuition, incidentally, is free.” Well, look, there's plenty of young men and women who go to the Academy who are foreign-born. They're brought here. It's part of the program. It doesn't -- I mean, [former Panamanian dictator Manuel] Noriega went to the military academy at West Point, for God's sake. But this is someone's personal opinion, and now it becomes fact. And I would imagine that down at the Air Force Academy right now, the commandant's on the phone saying, “Get Gino up here. I want to talk to him about what he said to this woman in the paper.” And he's talking about his personal opinion is.

SCHULTHEIS: Mm-hmm.

BOYLES: That's not, that's not policy. You can't be an illegal and go to the Air Force Academy, for crying out loud! It's just not done. I mean, why would you take someone -- but, all those things aside. So she makes these quantum leaps.

Contrary to Boyles' misrepresentation, Mattorano did not suggest that it would be appropriate for “an illegal [to] go to the Air Force Academy.” In fact, as quoted in Carman's column, Mattorano said that Air Force Academy admissions rules are silent on the citizenship or residency status of an applicant's parents, and that to bar a student on such a basis would be considered unfair, in his opinion:

Among the universities around the state that don't discriminate against students whose parents are illegal immigrants is one taxpayer-supported school right smack in Schultheis' Senate district. Its per-student costs dwarf the others, and admission is highly prized.

“There is nothing in our eligibility requirements that specifies the parents of candidates for admission be citizens or residents in good standing,” said that university's spokesman, Gino Mattorano.

Disqualifying a student based on the immigration status of his parents “would be considered unfair to the applicant,” he said. “That's just my personal opinion.”

The school is the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Tuition, incidentally, is free. [emphasis added]

Later in the broadcast, in asserting that the Air Force Academy trains some foreign students, Boyles likened it to the School of the Americas:

BOYLES: The fact that she ends this with someone's opinion -- a personal opinion -- and putting that in as sort of a fact. You know what? I'll bet Gino Mattorano is up in front of somebody down at this university that turns out to be the Air Force Academy. Because you know what? The admissions I thought were done by congressional appointment, then they weed -- I don't know. I don't know how it's done.

SCHULTHEIS: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

BOYLES: But -- and by the way, under all these different programs, there's Saudi Arabian kids down there. I mean, there's all kinds of -- they have all of these exchange programs. Yeah, there's, there's no -- you don't have to be a citizen to go to the Air Force Academy. But it's, it's a foreign policy thing. It's like the School of the Americas or something.

SCHULTHEIS: Sure.

The U.S. military-run institution formerly known as the School of Americas was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001 following allegations, which have continued, that the school trains its students -- nationals of Latin American countries -- in torture. Contrary to Boyles' assertion from earlier in the broadcast that former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega had attended West Point, he in fact had attended the School of the Americas, as the Congressional Research Service noted.