• 10
  • February
    2012

In our January 19 blog post, we discussed multiple bills before the 2012 Florida legislature. One of those bills, SB 1018, would have allowed U.S. citizen children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state college and university tuition. In late January, that bill was killed by a tie vote in the Senate Higher Education Committee, throwing another wrench into immigration efforts.

A 20-year-old college student testified before the Committee, saying that, "As a U.S.-born American citizen I can vote, I pay taxes, I attended school in Florida." Residency, however, is determined according to the status of a student's parents and not the student's status. Thus, the student must pay out-of-state tuition, which is nearly three times higher than Florida's in-state tuition.

Adults who wish to qualify for Florida's in-state tuition must live in Florida as an independent adult for at least a year. The witness had done just that. Yet, because her parents are not citizens, they do not have legal residency and she is not eligible for in-state tuition.

SB 1018 would have required U.S. born children of illegal immigrants to attend a Florida high school for at least two years and graduate from that high school. The bill would also have applied to students whose parents were incarcerated or missing.

"I really didn't want this to turn into an immigration issue," the sponsor of the bill, Sen. Rene Garcia, said. Yet, in this tense political environment, anything that benefits illegal immigrants and their children is likely to be portrayed as an immigration issue.

Source: Miami Herald, "Fla. Senate panel kills immigration tuition bill," Bill Kaczor, Associated Press.