{"id":328120,"date":"2026-07-03T05:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328120\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:55:18","slug":"florida-board-votes-to-ban-undocumented-students-from-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328120\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Board votes to ban undocumented students from colleges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 For some students across the state, the dream of earning a college degree in Florida may soon come to an end. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/file\/20947\/2-2.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Florida Board of Education;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Florida Board of Education&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Florida Board of Education<\/a> voted this week to ban immigrant students without legal status from the state\u2019s 28 colleges and adult educational programs.<\/p>\n<p>All but one board of education member voted on the change, a move that now has Florida students and immigrant communities pushing back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are young people who grew up in Florida. They went to our K-12 schools. They studied alongside everyone else. They volunteered. They worked. They took AP classes. They showed up for this day in every single way. And we made a promise to them. And now we are telling them that the finish line has been moved,\u201d said Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, Florida Immigration Coalition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Advocates say the impact wouldn\u2019t just be felt by students; they argue the change could cost the college system an estimated $15 million in lost tuition and fees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The proposal comes just one week after the Florida Board of Governors took their first steps towards adopting a similar ban at the state\u2019s universities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last year the legislature voted to remove in-state tuition for undocumented students, repealing a law that had been in place since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we\u2019ve addressed the tuition issue and aren\u2019t giving the tuition breaks to some here illegally, then this is the next step,\u201d said Governor Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Supporters say college seats should be reserved for Florida residents and U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would rather have that spot go to a Florida resident,\u201d said DeSantis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A legislative oversight committee is now stepping in, and has sent a letter to the Department of Education questioning whether education officials have the legal authority to make these changes without action from the legislature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 For some students across the state, the dream of earning a college degree in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,132227,25812,30,29,3384,130193],"class_list":["post-328120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-board-of-education","tag-florida-board-of-governors","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-students","tag-undocumented-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328120","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=328120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}