Students without legal status drop out as states roll back in-state tuition benefits

Tallahassee, Florida – Carlie hoped to spend her last year enjoying her last moments on the campus bordered by palm trees of the University of Florida Centrale. Instead, she sits at home alone, connecting to online courses, afraid of leaving her apartment and running the risk of being held by American immigration and customs application.

A few months ago, Carlie studied public relations in Orlando, imagining a working day for non -profit organizations that help students like her. Thanks to school fees in the state and private scholarships, Carlie lived a life that she had dreamed of in Haiti, a country she left at 13 years.

Now, it is one of the thousands of students from Florida whose education is delayed or derailed after state legislators revoked a 2014 law which enabled residents who are illegally eligible for schooling costs in public colleges and universities.

Tens of thousands of students without legal status lose access to tuition fees in the country with a repression of immigration carried out by President Donald Trump and his allies.

“I have the impression that all my hard work does not mean anything. As, one day I can just lose it,” said Carlie, who spoke subject to being identified only by her first name because she fears to be expelled.

When Florida legislators adopted the law on the derogation of tuition fees over ten years ago, it was a bipartite effort defended by the representative of the state of the time, Jeanette Nuñez, a Miami republican who became the Lieutenant-Governor of Governor Ron Desantis. Let Nuñez later, Nuñez would support the dismantling of what had been one of his signature achievements is a sign of the quantity of state immigration policy moving towards Trump’s priorities.

According to state data, more than 6,500 students have qualified for what is known as the exemption from the outside tuition fees during the 2023-2024 school year. This renunciation was revoked on July 1, after Desantis signed the bill repealing the reductions in tuition fees.

The cost difference is substantial. At the flagship university of Florida, a state resident should pay around $ 6,380 in tuition fees for the academic year 2025-2026 against around $ 30,900 for a non-resident student. Housing, transport and other expenses can add $ 17,000 or more.

Florida colleges and state universities do not specifically follow the registration of students without legal status, but some defenders of immigrants say they expect fewer students to take lessons in person, and many completely abandon the college.

Diego Dulanto Falcon obtained a baccalaureate in psychology thanks to the derogation of tuition fees. Now he continues his master’s degree in public health at the University of Florida in the South.

By losing access to tuition fees in the state, Dulanto Falcon said that students without legal status were cut off from a range of opportunities.

“Students fully undocumented, they have absolutely no option,” said Dulanto Falcon. “They work under the table, they just don’t work at all.”

By going to high school in Miami, David stacked his schedule with double registration courses and advanced placement courses. He hoped to frequent the university and become a radiologist or physiotherapist. David, who was born in Honduras, said that this now feels impossible for students like him without legal status. While his friends went to universities like Duke and Florida State, David went to work at McDonald’s.

He spoke on condition that he is identified only by his second first name because he fears the expulsion.

“When you enter this country and your parents are sacrificing and you are a child, all they tell you is to focus on school,” said David. “I did exactly that.”

But now, without tuition fees, he said he couldn’t afford the university.

Throughout the country, programs offering rates of schooling in the state to immigrants who once had a large bipartisan support were increasingly criticized by the Republicans. In legal challenges, the Trump administration argued that the advantages are unconstitutional.

The Ministry of Justice continued the States to put an end to the breaks of tuition fees, starting with Texas in June, followed by Kentucky, Minnesota and Oklahoma. In the meantime, the American Ministry of Education Survey the colleges which offer scholarships to students without legal status.

Rosie Curts, a secondary school mathematics professor in the Dallas Independent School District, is worried, she will not be able to motivate her students to learn algebra if they believe that the university is out of reach. A Texas law gave students without access to legal residence at tuition fees in the state for decades before a federal judge blocks it in June.

“The idea that can all be torn from them in such a cruel way is to demotivate the state of mind of educators,” said Curts during a call with journalists.

In Orlando, Carlie had a private scholarship to attend the center of Florida, but it only covered the rate of schooling in the state.

She was able to register as an online student at Purdue Global University, but she said that some of her credits had not been transferred and that she had to change her major, delaying her diploma.

Going to school in person in Florida was no longer an option after more than a dozen colleges and universities, including UCF, signed agreements with ice allowing them to carry out the application of immigration to the campus, she said.

“I chose online school because I just don’t feel safe,” said Carlie.

Hours of life far from their family in Miami, Carlie worries that if she was detained, he could be a few days before someone noticed that she was missing. It is much safer to stay inside, she said, living on food that she is delivered to her apartment when she tries to finish her studies.

“I try to put my life on the right track,” said Carlie. “I can’t stay at home forever.”

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Kate Payne is a member of the body for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national services program that places journalists from local editorial rooms to account for undercurrent issues.