logo
‘I don't want to drop out': Youth ask Florida GOP to keep in-state tuition for undocumented

‘I don't want to drop out': Youth ask Florida GOP to keep in-state tuition for undocumented

Miami Herald28-01-2025

Young immigrants called on Florida Republican lawmaker to not repeal a decade-old law that has allowed thousands of undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates for higher education in state colleges and universities.
At a press conference on Tuesday in front of the Miami-Dade School Board building in downtown Miami, several South Floridians directly pleaded with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Tallahassee legislators to keep the policy in place.
Idalia Quinteros, a first-generation immigrant from El Salvador, said that when she started applying for college, 'it felt like every single door was slammed in my face.' She couldn't apply for financial aid, qualify for most scholarships, take out loans, or get a job without a work permit.
'The light at the end of the tunnel was the in-state tuition waiver. It made college more affordable and gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams,' said Quinteros, who now has an associate's and a bachelor's degree.
The bipartisan measure, signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in 2014, adjusted residency requirements for higher-education purposes so that having access to in-state tuition rates was no longer tied to immigration status.
Educators, activists, and community leaders fear that if the policy is repealed thousands of undocumented youth in Florida will no longer be able to afford going to college. About 13,000 undocumented seniors graduate high school in the state annually, according to the President's Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a university leaders' group that advocates for immigrant students and conducts research on the effect of immigration policies on universities. There are also over 43,000 undocumented college students in Florida.
Demands to keep the in-state tuition policy come after Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed state lawmakers in recent weeks to repeal it. Republican legislative leaders have drawn up their own immigration proposal, which DeSantis has criticized, but it includes a provision that would eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students.
Under the current law, undocumented students in Florida can get a waiver and pay Florida-resident tuition fees at public and state colleges as long as they meet certain requirements. They must have gone to high school in the state for at least three consecutive years and enrolled in college within two years of high school graduation. The 2014 legislation also benefited the children of veterans, students without reliable housing or living in abusive households, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the immigration program that lets some undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to work..
READ MORE: Goaded to act by DeSantis, Florida lawmakers rebuke governor, unveil own immigration plan
Florida Lieut. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who advocated for the law a decade ago as a state representative, recently said she no longer supports the policy, saying that the U.S. looks 'very different today than it did then.'
'It's time to repeal this law. It has served its purpose and run its course. Florida will not incentivize illegal immigration through this law or any other,' she said said on her X account.
READ MORE: Florida lieutenant governor backs off support of in-state tuition for undocumented students
Advocates disagree.
'What has not changed is that children still need affordable education… What's sad is that they are attacking kids,' said immigration advocate Yareliz Menendez Zamora. Florida Student Power Network, American Friends Service Committee, Seeds of Resistance, and other activist organizations hosted the press conference.
Gaby Pacheco, a Miami immigration advocate that leads TheDream.US, the nation's largest college aid program for undocumented youth, said that the waiver had enabled more than 600 scholarship recipients from their programs to go to college.
'Cutting off Dreamers' opportunities to pursue and afford higher education is not only harmful to their future success, but shortsighted and harmful to Florida's overall future and potential economic growth,' said Pacheco, who came to the U.S. as a child.
Valeria Maldonado, 20, a nursing student at Miami-Dade College who came to the U.S. from El Salvador as a toddler, said that her focus had always been school because of her desire to pursue a career and help her family.
'I am here to ask not only Ron DeSantis but all our representatives across the state to make a real change, and not to hinder my growth, or create more challenges for me to become a professional in the medical field,' said Maldonado. ' I do not want to drop out and nor do my peers.'
Miami Herald staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this story.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Hochul met with chorus of boos at Belmont Stakes while presenting winner's trophy: video
Hochul met with chorus of boos at Belmont Stakes while presenting winner's trophy: video

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Hochul met with chorus of boos at Belmont Stakes while presenting winner's trophy: video

Gov. Kathy Hochul was met with a chorus of boos Saturday as she made an appearance at the 157th Belmont Stakes in Saratoga Springs – with one observer on hand calling the moment 'awkward.' Video obtained by The Post shows people in the crowd jeering the New York Democrat as she presented the trophy to the winning team of the race, Sovereignty. Harry Tutunjian, a former Troy mayor who was at the race, told The Post he wasn't surprised by the icy reception for Hochul. 'Her popularity is not good, especially in upstate New York,' said the ex-pol, who recorded the moment on his phone. 'The boos were for her, but the minute the trophy was hoisted in the air the place started cheering,' Tutunjian, a Republican, added. 'It was not because they were unhappy with the winner, or the trainer or the jockey. They were unhappy with the governor.' An attendee, who was in the grandstand at the finish line when Hochul presented the trophy, also noticed the lack of support for the Democrat. 'When Hochul was introduced, there was a smattering of boos. I didn't hear a single person clap,' the horse racing fan said. 'It was awkward.' The governor's office declined comment. Hochul had said in a social media post it was her honor to present the winner's trophy this year. 'The Belmont Stakes is a New York tradition, and we're keeping that tradition going in Saratoga while the new Belmont Park is under construction,' she wrote on Saturday. The state and New York Racing Association are currently redeveloping Belmont Park to the tune of a $455 million capital construction project. Hochul announced last week the park in Elmont on Long Island has been selected to host the 2027 Breeders' Cup World Championships.

Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more
Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more

The matchup in New Jersey's race for governor is officially set — and Tuesday's primaries also laid down big indicators about the state of both political parties after the first major intraparty contests since the 2024 election. Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator, easily won his party's primary with President Donald Trump's endorsement, underscoring Trump's significant sway over the GOP electorate. U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the crowded Democratic primary, pitching herself as the candidate with the best shot at holding on to the governorship and steering past ideological and antiestablishment sentiment simmering in her party. She defeated candidates who were to her left and to her right. The race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, one of two governor's races this year, is expected to be competitive. Trump lost the state by 6 percentage points in November, a 10-point swing in his direction compared with his 2020 margin. Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries: Sherrill won as many Democratic voters were weighing which candidate would be most electable and as each Democratic candidate pitched a different path forward for the party. Sherrill's victory suggests some Democratic voters want to dust off the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she flipped a longtime Republican-held House seat. In that campaign and in her primary run this year, Sherrill stressed her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a former federal prosecutor and pitched 'ruthless competence' as a counter to Trump. 'It just seems so obvious to me what the path forward is. It's effectively govern,' Sherrill recently told NBC News. 'And this is what I've been doing since 2018 when I first ran, right? ... I say to people, 'What's keeping you up at night?'' 'I tell people it's not maybe the sexiest tagline, but ruthless competence is what people in New Jersey want to see in government,' Sherrill added later. 'And that's what I've always provided, and that's what I think stands in stark contrast to the most incompetent federal government we've probably ever seen in this nation.' Still, while Sherrill won with over a third of the vote, the results revealed a fractured party. Two candidates who pitched themselves as more progressive, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, won a combined 36% of the vote. Two of the more moderate candidates, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, got 20% combined, while teachers union president Sean Spiller won 10%. After having come just 3 percentage points shy of defeating Murphy in 2021, Ciattarelli made one thing clear in his bid four years later: He's all in on Trump. Like many prominent Republicans, Ciattarelli wasn't always on board — he criticized Trump as a 'charlatan' in 2015. And while he embraced Trump during his previous bid for governor, he didn't campaign with him. That led Ciattarelli's opponents, including his top competitor, former radio host Bill Spadea, to try to frame him as insufficiently loyal to Trump. (Spadea had voiced criticism of Trump before he fell back in line.) But Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli cemented his front-runner status, helping hasten the end of the campaign. And in a nod to Ciattarelli's past criticism, Trump tried to inoculate him from any attempt to undercut his Trump bona fides. 'Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his backing. Tuesday's result suggests that Trump's seal of approval was good enough for most GOP primary voters. By late Tuesday evening, Ciattarelli was carrying all of the state's 21 counties. Ciattarelli's vote share was at 67% by late Tuesday evening, compared with just 22% for Spadea. State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who had been critical of Trump, had won just 6%, followed by two other candidates who had each won less than 3% of the vote. Ciattarelli thanked Trump in his victory speech for his 'endorsement and strong support,' making a joke about his being a 'part-time New Jersey resident.' (Trump owns a home and a golf course in Bedminster.) But Ciattarelli spent most of his speech focused on a general election argument, not on shoring up his base — indicative of the line he'll have to walk in a state Trump lost three times, even after the improvement he showed last year. Both parties are grappling with antiestablishment sentiment, wondering how to handle it, channel it or just avoid getting run over by it. But Tuesday's results were also a reminder that political institutions still have some staying power. New Jersey's traditional political machines were dealt a blow last year following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run, when a court ordered that county parties could no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates. That diminished the sway those parties had Tuesday, but they still demonstrated some power. Ciattarelli was the only Republican who competed for county party endorsements. Fulop didn't compete for Democratic county party endorsements, and Gottheimer sat some out, as well. Some county parties split between the candidates, with Sherrill earning the most endorsements from 10 of the 21 counties. While Sherrill was carrying 15 of the state's 21 counties late Tuesday, Gottheimer was winning his home county, Bergen, which endorsed him. Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, fared far better in the six counties that backed him. He was winning 40% of the vote in Gloucester County while garnering 7% of the statewide vote. The county party endorsements were no guarantee of victory: The Essex County Democrats, for example, endorsed Sherrill. But as of late Tuesday evening, she was trailing Baraka in Essex County, where he is mayor of Newark, the state's largest city. Even in that instance, though, the party endorsement may have helped Sherrill cut Baraka's margins in his home base. Tuesday night's victory speeches were also important table-setters, indicative of how each party is looking to frame the general election. And New Jersey's general election this year may foreshadow much of what we see on the campaign trail around the country in the 2026 midterms. Outside of a quick thanks to Trump, Ciattarelli kept his focus tightly on Sherrill and New Jersey Democrats in his victory speech. He criticized her as 'Phil Murphy 2.0,' arguing that she has 'enabled every extremist and costly idea Phil Murphy has put forth,' and he even revived a key criticism of Murphy from his 2021 campaign. He also criticized Sherrill's focus on Trump as a deflection. 'Mark my words: While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power. Trust me ... if you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says 'Trump,' you'd be drunk off your ass every day between now and Nov. 4,' he said. 'But every time you hear her say 'Trump,' I want you to know what it really means: What it really means is Mikie doesn't have a plan to fix New Jersey,' he continued. During her victory speech, Sherrill leaned heavily on her biography but also emphasized a dual mandate — a fight against New Jersey Republicans and also against Trump, a recipe that Democrats have successfully leaned on in past midterm elections. Calling Ciattarelli a 'Trump lackey' who shouldn't lead the state, Sherrill criticized 'Trump and MAGA Republicans in D.C. [who] want to raise your taxes and take away your health care and education dollars.' 'This country is too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to hoist on her,' she said. 'The future is built on hard work and hope, and here in New Jersey, we're known for our grit, our tenacity — maybe a little bit for how loud we are — but it's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people,' she said. 'So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans.' Tuesday's results showed how money matters in campaigns — and how it has its limits. On the Democratic side, Sherrill won despite having been outspent by some of her opponents whose outside groups dropped millions of dollars on the race. The largest outside spender was Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the state's teachers union, which Spiller leads. The group had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign had spent $342,000. As of late Tuesday, Spiller had about 10% of the primary vote. Gottheimer and Fulop were also boosted by outside groups that spent millions of dollars on the airwaves. (Gottheimer drained his congressional account to fund the outside group supporting him.) Sherrill got support on the airwaves from One Giant Leap PAC, which spent less than either Gottheimer's or Fulop's groups but spent most of its funds in the final weeks of the race. Ciattarelli and an aligned outside group, Kitchen Table Conservatives, outspent the other Republicans. And Ciattarelli touted his strong fundraising as proof that he would be a formidable general election candidate. This article was originally published on

Judge rejects Newsom's emergency request to limit Trump LA troop deployment
Judge rejects Newsom's emergency request to limit Trump LA troop deployment

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Judge rejects Newsom's emergency request to limit Trump LA troop deployment

A judge has rejected California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) emergency request to limit President Trump's Los Angeles troop deployment. Newsom had earlier Tuesday asked a federal judge to immediately intervene to limit Trump's deployment of the National Guard in L.A., asking for an emergency ruling by 1 p.m. PDT that day. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, however, granted the Trump administration's request for more time to respond to Newsom's request. The administration has until 11 a.m. PDT Wednesday to submit its arguments. 'The court did not deny or rule on the Governor's request for a temporary restraining order. The court set a hearing for Thursday, after the federal government and the state file additional briefs, and we anticipate the court will rule on the request for a TRO a short time later,' a Newsom spokesperson told The Hill on Tuesday when reached for comment. Trump and Newsom have gone after each other amid the recent immigration protests in Los Angeles, with Trump even saying he would support arresting the Golden State governor. 'The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,' Newsom shot back in a post on X Monday at Trump. Vice President Vance also took swings on Monday at Newsom, responding to Newsom's post about Trump's comments on his arrest by telling him to 'Do your job.' 'That's all we're asking,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store