Reaction as Florida lawmakers move to end in-state tuition for Dreamers

For the second straight year, lawmakers in Tallahassee are talking about taking away the right of so-called Dreamers to pay the in-state tuition rate at state universities.

Dreamers are unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children.

In 2014, then-governor Rick Scott signed the law which allows Dreamers who live in the state to attend Florida’s colleges and universities at the in-state rate.

Finding exact numbers is difficult, but immigration advocates estimate there are tens of thousands of Dreamers who are already attending Florida universities or are in K-12 public schools, planning on going to a state university when they graduate high school.

“I am a dreamer, I am originally from Honduras,” said Julio Calderon. “Graduated with an economics degree from FIU, and currently toward my masters at MIT.”

Calderon said allowing students like himself to pay in-state tuition is a wise investment.

"This policy works, it changed my life, and it changed the way I help everyone around me, the way I support the people around me, it’s not just a benefit for myself it’s a benefit for the community,” Calderon said.

State senator Randy Fine, a Republican from Brevard County who is running for Congress, proposed the legislation, saying Dreamers don’t’ deserve the in-state discount.

“It’s simply immoral, illegal immigrants should never get a better deal than Americans and that’s what’s happening in Florida,” Fine said. “Someone from Georgia who wants to go to one of our public universities is gonna pay three times as much as an illegal immigrant who shouldn’t even be in America.”

The difference is stark. At Florida International University, in-state tuition per year is about $6,000, while the out-of-state rate is more than $18,000, and the difference is even greater at Florida State University and at the University of Florida.

“I believe that citizenship matters, it should matter, it’s what this country is founded on,” said senate president Ben Albritton, Republican from Wauchula, who supports the proposal.

Broward County School Board member Dr. Allen Zeman was asked if this idea would impact students in Broward.

“Absolutely, we have a lot of dreamers in Broward County, we don’t know exactly how many there are, but the dreamers here deserve the ability to go to college,” Zeman said.

In Zeman’s opinion, cutting off Dreamers from in-state tuition is “hateful," and he added that Albritton and Fine should “let Dreamers dream."

“I’m intensely curious as to whether they’ve ever met a dreamer, these people have come here at very young ages, they’ve been successful in our schools, they’re productive members of our community, and if they live in Florida, don’t we want them to go to college and continue to be productive citizens, to pay taxes, and to be dreamers?” Zeman asked.

Albritton and Fine said phasing out in-state tuition for Dreamers would save the state $45 million. Zeman said not only is that a drop in the bucket for the state’s budget, he said it’s faulty math because it assumes those students would still go to state colleges and pay out-of-state rates.

The legislative session starts in January.