Florida state board bans undocumented students from college system

Dive Snapshot: 

The Florida State Board of Education approved a policy Tuesday to bar undocumented students from attending the 28-institution Florida College System. 
Under the approved policy, the college system can only admit students who are U.S. citizens or “lawfully present” in the country. 
Students will also have to provide documentation that they are citizens or lawfully present in the U.S. before enrolling. 

Higher Ed Impact: The move could deal a major blow to the system’s enrollment. Some 50,000 of the state’s students were undocumented in 2023, according to an analysis from the American Immigration Council. Prior to Tuesday’s vote, the Florida Policy Institute estimated that the ban could cost the state college system $15 million in lost tuition and fee revenue.

The Context: Florida’s separate public university system is also poised to ban undocumented students. Last week, the system’s governing board voted to advance a policy that would effectively bar its 12 institutions from enrolling any student that is “present in the United States unlawfully.”

The system’s governing board will hold a final vote on whether to approve the policy after a 14-day comment period. 

Republican lawmakers in the state have also moved toward policies hostile to undocumented students. Last year, they repealed a statute that allowed certain undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at Florida’s public institutions. 

Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched numerous lawsuits against states that have similar laws on the books. So far, judges have struck down four of those laws after state and DOJ officials jointly requested that they be nullified. 

What we’re watching: It remains to be seen whether other Republican-controlled states will pursue and successfully enact similar bans in their higher education systems. But other conservative strongholds have taken policy cues from Florida before on other higher education matters, such as bans on diversity, equity and inclusion spending and establishing civics centers.