Florida Universities Could Ban Undocumented Students

The Florida Board of Governors this week took a step toward barring undocumented students from admission to the state system’s 12 public universities.

A proposed rule, discussed Thursday by the board’s academic affairs committee, would block these students from enrolling, unless institutions already admitted “all academically qualified applicants,” starting in the 2027–28 academic year. The committee adopted a version of the proposal, but the rule still needs approval from the full Board of Governors.

The rule would be a blow to thousands of noncitizen students in the state. An estimated 8,000 undocumented students graduate from high school in Florida annually, and over 49,000 undocumented students are enrolled in Florida colleges, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.

While current students wouldn’t be affected, new students would be blocked form enrolling if they’re “present in the United States unlawfully,” according to the current proposal. The committee lightly tweaked the proposal’s language to clarify students studying online at Florida universities from other countries would be permitted to do so. Otherwise, the issue prompted little debate among board members. The public has 14 days to comment on the proposal. The next regular board meeting is in September.

Diego Sánchez, vice president of policy and strategy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said the proposal doesn’t make clear what it means for universities to have already admitted all “qualified applicants” or how the system plans to define and verify who’s lawfully present.

“That’s going to create a lot of confusion, not only for students and families,” but also institutions, Sánchez said. The policy “could potentially create inconsistent implementation across the public university system.”

Jared Nordlund, Florida state director at UnidosUS, an immigrant-advocacy organization, said he expects the rule—if approved—to function as an all-out ban on undocumented students.

Alexander Lambridis, a junior at Florida Atlantic University, told board members that the policy was “shameful.”

The proposed rule “simply reads like an eviction notice to the American dream,” Lambridis said during the meeting’s public comment portion.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threw his support behind the proposal at a press conference Wednesday.

“I’m fully supportive of it,” he said. “I think what they’re doing is the right thing to do. I think it’s putting the students in Florida who are growing up here going to our schools, Florida residents, it’s putting them first.”

Broader Ban Looms

The state’s universities aren’t the only Florida institutions that could soon become off-limits to undocumented students.

The State Board of Education, which oversees 28 state colleges, plans to consider a similar proposal at a June 30 meeting; the new rule would allow only those “lawfully present” in the country to enroll at state colleges and in adult education programs.

Sánchez is concerned the State Board of Education is using the administrative rule-making process to make a major policy shift when its general purpose is to implement laws, not create new ones.

And state lawmakers have struggled to get a ban like the ones both boards are considering passed and signed into law.

Florida state Sen. Erin Grall tried this year to push forward legislation to prevent noncitizens from enrolling in state higher ed institutions, but the bill stalled in committee. Former state Sen. Randy Fine, now a U.S. representative, also introduced a bill last year that would have banned undocumented students from enrolling in competitive universities, those with acceptance rates of less than 85 percent, but it was withdrawn from consideration.

Nordlund said the repeated legislative failure “tells you that it’s unpopular with people here on the ground. It didn’t really have any legs at all.”

If both proposals pass, he said, undocumented students graduating high school in the state would be left with few choices: attend online programs or Florida private institutions or leave the state. He’s heard some students are intent on leaving, a loss of “homegrown talent” for Florida’s economy and aging workforce and a drop in tuition dollars for Florida higher ed institutions.

“These kids, they’ve been here their entire life,” Nordlund said. “The fact that we’ve not found ways to make their economic future brighter out there when we actually need them … it shows you just how backwards the state leaders are.”

Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, a scholarship provider for undocumented students, said in a statement that the organization’s Florida scholarship recipients and alumni came to the U.S. at age 6 on average. She called efforts to limit these students’ enrollment “cruel and counterproductive,” noting that alumni have gone on to become nurses, teachers and engineers and work in other professions needed in the state.

Sánchez worries undocumented students might forgo college altogether if they can’t afford private university tuition or a move to another state. He emphasized that Florida has already invested in these students’ K–12 education.

“As a Floridian, my first reaction is why is Florida shooting itself in the foot?” he said. “The state educated these students … and now wants to close the door just as they’re ready to contribute.”

The state’s efforts to prevent noncitizens from enrolling comes after Florida already did away with in-state tuition for undocumented students last year, nixing a decade-old law, as part of a sweeping immigration bill signed by DeSantis. Similar laws have since come under attack from the U.S. Department of Justice in 10 other states.

If the proposals go into effect, Florida would join a handful of states that limit undocumented students’ admissions: Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

“It’s definitely a pattern that we’re seeing, a broader effort to narrow the entire public higher ed pipeline for Dreamers,” Sánchez said.