Florida

In-state tuition for ‘Dreamers' on the line during Florida legislative session

For 10 years, Dreamers, who are unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, have had affordable access to Florida’s state colleges and universities. 

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An estimated 40,000 state college students are worried they will have to suddenly pay out-of-state tuition rates as eliminating in-state tuition for so-called Dreamers is on the table in Tallahassee. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports

Allowing so-called "Dreamers" to pay in-state tuition rates at Florida colleges and universities has been a bipartisan idea for years, seen as a way to help kids who grew up in Florida become productive members of society.  

Now, the Florida Legislature is leaning toward rescinding that benefit, with many Republicans considering it an idea whose time has run out. 

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For 10 years, Dreamers, who are unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, have had affordable access to Florida’s state colleges and universities. 

“The in-state tuition waiver passed in 2014 has been transformative for thousands of high school students in Florida, and I know this first-hand,” said Idalia Quinteros, a Dreamer who spoke at a news conference Tuesday in Miami, asking the legislature not to cancel in-state tuition

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The difference is stark. At Miami Dade College, locals pay about $1,400 in yearly tuition, while out-of-state students pay about $4,800. At FIU, in-state tuition is about $6,000, while students from outside Florida pay $18,000. 

State Sen. Blase Ingoglia, Republican of Central Florida, is among those legislators who will vote to cancel in-state rates for Dreamers. 

“The issue is that it’s a magnet that allows people, that encourages people to settle in the state of Florida and other states by offering them the same benefits that Floridians and actual citizens have, and what that does is facilitates more illegal immigration,” Ingoglia said Tuesday in Tallahassee. 

“It just makes absolutely no sense,” said Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican Congressman and also, a former Miami-Dade School Board member. 

“Here in Florida, we don’t need to pull off any stunt right now to prove that we’re ultra-conservative on immigration, we just need to do the right thing,” Curbelo said. “To change this policy would be short-sighted and would do a lot more harm than good, I actually don’t think it would do any good at all.”

Curbelo points out that when Jeanette Nunez, the current Lieutenant Governor of Florida, was in the Legislature in 2014, she pushed hard to allow in-state tuition for Dreamers, and Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed it into law. 

“Balances fairness with pragmatism, compassion with common sense,” Nunez said on the floor of the Florida House of Representatives. “Let’s not allow the American dream to fade for this group of students.”

But now, Nunez has changed her mind, writing on X, “It’s time to repeal this law, it has served its purpose and run its course.”

“The only thing that’s really changed is the political climate, the story of these Dreamers has not changed,” responded Ana Eskamani, Democratic state representative from Orlando.

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