{"id":391859,"date":"2026-09-06T03:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391859\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T03:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T03:30:15","slug":"undocumented-students-barred-from-enrollment-at-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391859\/","title":{"rendered":"Undocumented students barred from enrollment at universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s State University System Board of Governors voted Thursday to ban undocumented students from initial enrollment at public state universities, with the change set to take effect for the 2027-28 academic year.<\/p>\n

The decision makes Florida the largest state to adopt what are known as \u201cprohibitive enrollment\u201d policies, joining states including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The change could affect thousands of undocumented students who planned to attend one of Florida\u2019s 12 public state universities, including the University of Central Florida.<\/p>\n

The new policy<\/a> reads in part, \u201cbeginning with the 2027-28 academic year, a person who is present in the United States unlawfully shall not be eligible for initial enrollment in any state university which, for the two most recent academic years, did not admit all academically qualified applicants, except for cases in which applicants were rejected for nonacademic reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear how the admissions process will change and how the policy will define students \u201cpresent in the United States unlawfully,\u201d including students who may be undergoing an immigration process.<\/p>\n

Alexander Vallejos, a University of Central Florida senior, said the decision was difficult to hear.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery heartbroken,\u201d Vallejos said. \u201cBecause it felt very personal to me, because I am a Dreamer who grew up in this state and country since I was one-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vallejos said his path through higher education has not been easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I graduated high school, all I had was just hopes and dreams, where I was ready to work hard. I was ready to give it my all,\u201d Vallejos said. \u201cBut that\u2019s when I found out that, oh, I don\u2019t have the same opportunities and privileges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Faculty of Florida and the Florida Education Association rejected the proposed changes, saying the decision would limit opportunities for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith as many as 8,000 undocumented students graduating from Florida high schools annually and over 50,000 undocumented students enrolled in Florida\u2019s state university system, this move will restrict opportunities for thousands of our brightest students and stifle future economic growth in our state,\u201d the groups said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Vallejos said he plans to graduate in May and worries other students will not have the same opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, I made it to this point where I\u2019m at, or I\u2019m ready to graduate. It\u2019s been a rough road, but I was able to do all these great things and live the American dream because of one thing, and that\u2019s I had the opportunity to prove myself,\u201d Vallejos said.<\/p>\n

The change applies to the 12 universities that are in the State University System of Florida<\/a>. It does not affect the state college system, including schools such as Valencia College and Seminole State College.<\/p>\n

Madhurima Paturi, founding attorney at Paturi Law, said the policy does not clearly explain who would fall under the language \u201cpresent in the United States unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t explain a lot,\u201d Paturi said. \u201cThey just said present unlawful. So who you are currently unlawful. So, is it somebody who came legally and lost the status or somebody who\u2019s pending the status with the USCIS? They didn\u2019t specifically mention about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis supported the decision in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlad to see the Board of Governors ratify the prohibition on illegal alien students at our colleges and universities. Always need to put Floridians \u2014 and Americans \u2014 first,\u201d DeSantis wrote.<\/p>\n

Paturi said she expects more guidance on how the change will be reflected in the admissions process as the effective date gets closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Florida, we have a lot of Dreamers, not just Dreamers for immigration; they are real Dreamers. They want to have a big change and impact in the society on their life,\u201d Paturi said. \u201cSo we are really losing that access to education for those students. It\u2019s really hard. But just don\u2019t lose the hope yet. I think hopefully we will start getting more information as we get closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCF declined to comment on the Board of Governors\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s State University System Board of Governors voted Thursday to ban undocumented students from initial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4996,3140,113,766,115,1335,139,141,140,99,135,835],"class_list":["post-391859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-education","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-education","tag-massiel-leyva","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391859","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=391859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}