Orlando students barred from GOP Rep. Susan Plasencia’s office

A group of about a dozen university and college students, alumni and activists were locked out of Florida Rep. Susan Plasencia’s office Wednesday afternoon, as the group prepared to deliver a petition demanding Plasencia reverse her position on repealing in-state tuition rates for Florida students who are undocumented.

A repeal of Florida’s decade-old in-state tuition policy is being considered by Florida lawmakers this week as part of a broader immigration package the state Legislature is expected to pass as part of a special legislative session called by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

If approved, and signed by the governor, legislation currently advancing would create a State Board of Immigration Enforcement — which the governor would be a part of — and establish a mandatory death penalty for undocumented immigrants found guilty of a capital offense, such as child rape or murder, among other things.

Plasencia is a second-term Republican state representative whose district includes Florida’s largest public university by student enrollment — the University of Central Florida. She wasn’t in her office off Aloma Avenue Wednesday (due to being up in Tallahassee), but legislative staff wouldn’t allow the students into her office building to speak to her staff. Nor would the handful of Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies who stood guard outside.

According to Allison Minnerly, a UCF graduate and deputy executive director for the student advocacy group Youth Action Fund, deputies were waiting for them outside the building when they arrived, and doors to the public building were locked.

“You’re locking out your own constituents who are very passionate about this legislation that can destroy their very lives,” said Cameron Driggers, founder of the student advocacy group Youth Action Fund, on speaker phone with a member of  Plasencia’s office staff. “It’s office protocol,” the staffer stated.

Either make an appointment with Plasencia, the staffer said, or email the petition to her office. Plasencia’s legislative team did not respond to Orlando Weekly’s emailed request for comment on the students’ rally or her position on the in-state tuition repeal proposal. (We will update this story if she chooses to.)

“We are here outside of a public building funded by our tax dollars. The people that are here representing us today are UCF students, alumni, people that are directly impacted by the decision to take away in-state tuition for Dreamers,” said Minnerly, speaking to the group gathered outside.

“We’re here on public property that’s paid for by us, with a staff member who is funded by our tax dollars. They are here to serve us and represent us and we aren’t being heard.”

Florida’s state Legislature, where Republicans enjoy a more than two-to-one advantage over their Democratic peers, convened for a special legislative session on Tuesday in Tallahassee for the second time in two weeks — on the taxpayer’s dime, of course. The special session is intended specifically to address immigration policy, in light of the recent return of President Donald Trump to the White House.

Republican state lawmakers, including Plasencia, are looking to pass a sweeping package of bills targeting immigration enforcement — a compromise of sorts with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wasn’t a fan of similar legislation that lawmakers approved a couple of weeks ago — as well as in-state tuition rates for undocumented students.

Florida’s tuition policy allows undocumented students both within and outside of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to pay the same tuition rates as college and university students who reside in Florida. It was initially (and proudly) championed by Florida Republicans in 2014, and was even sponsored by current Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez, who only recently reneged her support for the idea.

Eligible applicants for in-state tuition rates under the program include Florida residents and students without legal status who have attended school in Florida for at least three consecutive years.

According to the Florida Policy Institute, a progressive think-tank, over 6,500 undocumented students in Florida received a waiver for out-of-state tuition in the 2023-2024 academic year, saving each student thousands of dollars per year, while still contributing $26.7 million collectively in tuition.

Repealing the tuition waiver for undocumented students, the think-tank predicts, could cause Florida to lose out on nearly $15 million in tuition and fees, “plus additional losses from locking Dreamers out of economic opportunity and Florida’s economy losing skilled labor.”

“There are very real concerns that young people in Florida are facing right now, none of which are a result of undocumented Floridians having access to education in an affordable way,” said Driggers, the student activist. “Students are concerned about the rising cost of rent, the rising cost of really everything in the state, the climate crisis and the problems continue. And yet we see our legislators continuing to battle this culture war, which is completely unproductive and not at all supported by the will of their constituents.”

Rep. Plasencia, elected to a second term in the Florida House this past November by a slim margin against young progressive Nate Douglas, previously supported Florida’s in-state tuition rates for undocumented students, according to immigrant advocates.

Still, she voted in favor of another in-state tuition policy repeal for undocumented students just a couple of weeks ago — a position students on Wednesday urged her to reverse. The tone on immigration reform and policy in Florida — home to the third-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. — has shifted in recent years, even as business groups admit they need workers without legal status to keep their profits coming.

Former Kissimmee-area state Sen. Victor Torres, a Democrat who left office last November, bemoaned the lack of vocal support for Florida’s immigrant community in the state Legislature in an interview with the Florida Phoenix last October.

“We did so many good things in early 2014 to help the immigration community, and this governor and this supermajority Republicans have changed all that and taken away all those things that we passed for these young folks, students, and people who come to this country for a future,” Torres told the Phoenix. “And that’s the sad point, that even those who are immigrants themselves in their background who are elected officials forget where they came from.”

Other states, similar to Florida, have also taken action to align state policy with directives from the Trump administration, or to otherwise help the administration’s immigration hawks carry out their wishes. Since Trump took office, ICE agents have reportedly arrested scores of undocumented immigrants without criminal records, despite early assertions from the Trump administration that they would be targeting only undocumented people with a criminal history.

A father in California, brought to the U.S. by his family from El Salvador at two-years-old, was reportedly approached by an ICE agent while getting ready to take his children to school.

Still, others are fighting back. According to the Associated Press, 27 religious groups this week filed a lawsuit in federal court lawsuit that aims to prevent ICE agents from making arrests at houses of worship. Groups across the country, including Hope Community Center and the Greater Haitian American Chamber of Commerce in Central Florida, have organized ‘Know Your Rights’ trainings for immigrant workers and their families.

Teachers unions are sharing information with educators on how they can protect their students and families who are undocumented. A number of U.S. businesses across the country shut their doors on Feb. 4 for a “Day Without Immigrants” to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on both lawful and unlawful immigration. Nearly 200 locals came together near the Waterford Lakes Town Center over the weekend to protest directives from the Trump administration — particularly against immigration crackdowns and mass deportations.

“Constituents are going to continue to speak out, and we’re gonna continue to organize, and keep Representative Plasencia accountable to the pledges she made on the campaign trail that she continues to break,” said Driggers.

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This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2025.