{"id":328106,"date":"2026-07-03T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328106\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:30:12","slug":"illegal-migrants-banned-from-being-admitted-to-florida-public-universities-state-board-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328106\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal migrants banned from being admitted to Florida public universities, state board rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2019s State Board of Education voted Tuesday to move forward with a policy barring illegal immigrants from being admitted to the state\u2019s public colleges, marking the latest effort by state leaders to tighten immigration rules in higher education.<\/p>\n

The board voted 6-1 to make the Sunshine State\u2019s 28 state colleges and the state\u2019s adult education programs inaccessible to illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the only vote against the measure was from member Daniel Foganholi, who the outlet said was a first-generation American born to immigrants from Brazil.<\/p>\n

But the state board said it did have the authority to implement the rule, citing Florida statutes that pave the way to allow it to create admission criteria, the Sentinel noted.<\/p>\n

Higher Ed Drive reported Thursday that, in 2023, the state was home to approximately 50,000 illegal immigrant students, according to the American Immigration Council.<\/p>\n

Last year, Florida ended a program that let illegal immigrant students under DACA pay in-state tuition.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Sentinel identified Alex Liberman, one of over 50 people who shared an opinion during public comment, who said that, \u201cEducation is not meant to be a policing system for immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from reporters during a press conference at the Office of Statewide Prosecution on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Tampa. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n

Virginia Bolton, a student at Florida International University, called in to voice her disapproval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling to express my utmost disgust and concern,\u201d Bolton said. \u201cThese items are not only cruel, vague and hypocritical of what the Department of Education stands for, but what the United States Constitution does as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, claimed the proposed policy is against Florida law, saying, \u201cFlorida law requires you to maintain an open-door admission policy in our state college system which these rules violate.<\/p>\n

\"AerialHigher Ed Drive reported Thursday that, in 2023, the state was home to approximately 50,000 illegal immigrant students. Florida A&M University via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cOur constitution also requires you to provide for the education of all children within our borders, which makes what you are doing unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the vote, saying in a clip shared Tuesday by Spectrum News, \u201cYou know, if you\u2019re here illegally, you know, you go to a state university, it doesn\u2019t make sense. I would rather have that spot go to a Florida resident. But then they\u2019re getting less than what a U.S. citizen in Georgia is getting, someone who lives in South Georgia. It just doesn\u2019t make any sense at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alex Lanfranconi, communications director for DeSantis, told Fox News Digital in a statement, \u201cIllegal immigrants have no right to attend taxpayer-funded colleges. Under Governor DeSantis, Florida will put a stop to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Florida\u2019s State Board of Education for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s State Board of Education voted Tuesday to move forward with a policy barring illegal immigrants from being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18924,28,30,29,8234,28714,4278],"class_list":["post-328106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-migrants","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}