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Florida’s State Board of Education voted Tuesday to move forward with a policy barring illegal immigrants from public colleges, marking the latest effort by state leaders to tighten immigration laws at institutions of higher learning.
The board voted 6-1 to make the Sunshine State’s 28 community colleges and state adult education programs inaccessible to illegal immigrants.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the only vote against the measure was member Daniel Foganholi, who the source said is a first-generation American born to immigrants from Brazil.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported efforts to limit admissions to Florida’s public colleges to illegal immigrants. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
But the state board said it has the authority to implement the law, citing Florida laws that pave the way for it to create admissions criteria, the Sentinel reported.
The Higher Ed Drive reported Thursday that, by 2023, the state was home to about 50,000 illegal immigrant students, according to the American Immigration Council.
Last year, Florida ended a program that allowed illegal immigrant students under DACA to pay tuition.
The Orlando Sentinel cited Alex Liberman, one of more than 50 people who shared opinions during the public comment period, who said, “Education is not meant to be an immigration policing program.”
Interior of a school classroom (Getty Images)
Virginia Bolton, a student at Florida International University, filed a petition to voice her disapproval.
“I’m calling to express my total disgust and concern,” Bolton said. “These things are not only cruel, vague and hypocritical of what the Department of Education stands for, but what the United States Constitution does.”
Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said the proposed policy violates Florida law, saying, “Florida law requires you to maintain an open-door admissions policy in our state college system that is being violated by these laws.
“Our constitution also requires you to provide education for all children within our borders, which makes what you are doing against the constitution.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference. (State of Florida)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the vote, saying in a clip shared Tuesday by Spectrum News, “You know, if you’re here illegally, you know, going to a state university, it doesn’t make sense. I’d rather that place go to someone who lives in Florida. But they get less than what a US citizen gets in Georgia, someone who lives in South Georgia makes sense. It doesn’t make sense.
Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for DeSantis, told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Illegal immigrants do not have the right to attend taxpayer-funded colleges. Under Governor DeSantis, Florida will stop this.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Florida State Board of Education for comment.
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