Florida Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard, went another step farther on state legislators’ anti-immigrant war path Tuesday by filing a bill that would prohibit some Florida colleges and universities from accepting students who are undocumented immigrants.
Under Senate Bill 244, filed for consideration in the 2025 legislative session, public colleges in the Florida College System and state universities with an acceptance rate of less than 85 percent would be barred from enrolling or even accepting applications from undocumented people.
Fine claims this was an idea brought to him by a constituent.
The bill would also get rid of a 2014 law, championed by Florida Republicans at the time, that allowed undocumented students who met certain qualifications to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.
“In our opinion, it’s pretty stupid and counterproductive,” Thomas Kennedy, a consultant for the Florida Immigrant Coalition and former Democratic National Committee member from Miami, told Orlando Weekly of Fine’s new bill.
Sen. Fine, who’s currently running for Congress to replace Trump’s pick for national security advisor, U.S. House Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), did not return a request for comment from Orlando Weekly on the proposal. We’ll update this story if he comes back to us with input to share.
But he told Central Florida Public Media that the list of affected universities, under his bill, would include the University of Central Florida in Orlando, the state’s largest public university by enrollment. Seminole State College in Sanford — as well as other major public universities across the state, such as the University of Florida and University of South Florida — could also be impacted.
“Is it fair to allow an illegal immigrant to take a spot that could be taken by a Floridian or an American? I would argue no,” Fine told the Associated Press. He added, in a prepared statement, that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has similarly weaponized anti-immigrant rhetoric — has for years been in agreement that it’s time to end “handouts” for undocumented students.
“We must put Floridians first, and I am proud to do my part to re-balance the scales for our citizens,” Fine argued.
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But Kennedy, a community activist and former political director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said that undocumented students — and in-state tuition opportunities for them — serve to benefit Florida’s higher-education institutions. “It actually just increases enrollment in Florida universities, because otherwise these students would have to pay as foreign students — [it] would just be three to four times more expensive.”
Kennedy added that he himself was undocumented when he graduated from high school, and faced challenges in furthering his education. This was before the in-state tuition waiver for undocumented students was approved. “I couldn’t go to university for years because it was so expensive,” Kennedy explained.
In-state tuition for eligible Florida residents is thousands of dollars cheaper than tuition rates for students enrolling from out-of-state, thereby making higher education more accessible for people from low-to-middle-income families, or students who don’t want to spend years paying off student debt.
According to a 2021 community survey from the American Immigration Council, Florida has one of the largest populations of undocumented students in the country, with an estimated 40,000 undocumented students enrolled in the state’s post-secondary institutions — about 3 percent of the total student population.
Kennedy said the proposal from Fine to bar admission of undocumented students from certain Florida colleges and universities altogether seems new to him — i.e., not a repeat bill — but the effort to undermine what Kennedy described as an already “onerous” 2014 law allowing in-state tuition rates for a limited pool of qualified undocumented students in Florida is not.
“The [2014] law basically says that these undocumented students get to pay the same rates as U.S .citizens, right? It’s not, you know, a ‘handout’ or anything like that,” he argued, referring to Fine’s claim. “They’re merely just paying the same rates.”
To qualify for in-state tuition, undocumented students must have attended high school in Florida for at least three consecutive years prior to graduation, and are required to apply for enrollment to a post-secondary institution within 24 months of their high school graduation.
The 2014 law granting this in-state tuition waiver for undocumented students was sponsored by then-Florida state Rep. Jeanette Nunez, who today serves as Lt. Governor alongside DeSantis. Nunez now supports repealing the in-state tuition waiver.
DeSantis this week issued a proclamation calling on Florida lawmakers to convene a special legislative session later this month to address immigration policy, in light of President-Elect Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations beginning on day one of his presidency, and the collaboration between local, state, and federal governments that such a mission would require.
“President Trump has a mandate, and the state of Florida is going to be there every step of the way,” DeSantis declared at a news conference announcing his call for a special session Monday.
Florida’s regular 60-day legislative session is already scheduled to begin early March. The proposed special session from DeSantis — during which time he also wants legislators to address issues such as condo reform and the citizen ballot initiative process — would begin Monday, Jan. 27, and last no longer than a week.
Kennedy, for his part, called the special session a distraction. “It’s really just, in our opinion, grandstanding. It’s a distraction from the actual meat and potatoes of what should be addressed in the actual session that runs from March to May.”
Florida has one of the largest populations of undocumented people in the U.S. They contribute an estimated $1.8 billion to the state’s economy annually through local and state taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Trump’s deportation proposal, which would reportedly target undocumented immigrants with criminal records first, has received mixed reactions from the normally GOP-friendly business community — particularly industries such as tourism that rely on undocumented labor.
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This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2025.
