Florida’s universities are off-limits for anyone in the US ‘unlawfully’

Students must be lawfully in the United States to attend Florida’s universities, the board that oversees the university system voted Thursday.

The measure received no debate or discussion, except from members of the public during public comment. The Board of Governors approved the measure, on the consent agenda, after receiving preliminary approval during a meeting in June.

Undocumented students could be banned from state university enrollment under looming rule change

Roberto Garcia, an instructor at Florida Gulf Coast University, which hosted the Board of Governors meeting Thursday, was among those who spoke in opposition to the policy.

“At its core, this regulation asks our universities to look at an academically qualified student, someone who has done the work, earned the grades, met the standards, and demonstrated that they are capable of succeeding here and tell them that none of that matters because of their immigration status. I cannot reconcile that with the purpose of public higher education,” Garcia said during his allotted two minutes to address the board. 

The policy kicks in for the 2027-2028 school year.

It doesn’t outright bar someone “unlawfully” in the country, but instead deems them ineligible to enroll at an institution “which, for the two most recent academic years, did not admit all academically qualified applicants.”

No Florida Board of Education members debated or questioned a similar policy that panel approved in June for the 28 Florida College System institutions, including adult education courses, often designed to help students earn high school diploma equivalencies or learn English.

Earlier this summer, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is “fully supportive of it.”

“I think what they are doing is the right thing to do, and I think it’s putting the students in Florida that are growing up here, going to our schools, Florida residents. … It’s putting them first,” DeSantis said. 

In 2014, Gov. Rick Scott signed a law allowing undocumented college students who attended Florida high schools to pay in-state tuition. The bill was championed by then-state Sen. Jeanette Nuñez, later lieutenant governor under DeSantis. Nuñez is now president of Florida International University.

Last year, the Legislature repealed that policy.

According to Higher Ed Immigration Portal, about 8,000 undocumented students graduate from high school in Florida every year.

Students who are not in the country legally may have graduated from a Florida high school and perhaps came to the country as an infant, knowing only a life in the United States.