Florida is the fourth state to adopt such a policy, following Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
The post Board of Governors bans undocumented students from state universities appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
—
Florida’s Board of Governors has barred students without legal immigration status from enrolling at any state university.
The 17-member panel approved the change unanimously without debate during a meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University.
The restriction is effective for the 2027-28 academic year and makes Florida the largest state in the nation to close publicly funded higher education to that group.
As amended, the state’s General Admissions regulation provides that a person unlawfully present in the country “shall not be eligible for initial enrollment in any state university.”
It applies to schools that have not accepted every academically qualified applicant over the prior two academic years.
Thursday’s vote extends a step the State Board of Education took over the Summer, when it shut the same students out of Florida’s 28 public colleges and adult education programs.
Some 8,000 students lacking legal status finish Florida high schools annually, according to the Florida Education Association. Only two states enroll more such children in their K-12 systems, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Eight speakers used the meeting’s public comment period to speak on the restriction, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. All urged rejection.
Kaili Taylor, a Florida Gulf Coast senior, told the Board that widening access, rather than narrowing who may learn and contribute, ought to be the point of public higher education.
Robert Cassanello, President of the United Faculty of Florida and a University of Central Florida professor, criticized the vote as “overreach” by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
DeSantis appointed 14 of the panel’s members, whom Cassanello suggested were finishing work state lawmakers declined to do through legislation Vero Beach Sen. Erin Grall and Reps. Berny Jacques of Seminole and Jennifer Kincart Johnson of Lakeland — all Republicans — carried unsuccessfully during the 2026 Session.
Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association, pushed back on characterizations of the affected students as lawbreakers, noting that many arrived as infants and “have known only the United States of America,” Gulf Coast News reported.
Florida is the fourth state to adopt such a policy, following Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
The post Board of Governors bans undocumented students from state universities appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
