MIAMI – Undocumented students in South Florida are fighting to preserve a program that allows them to pay in-state tuition, as state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis push to repeal the policy.
Valeria Maldonado, an undocumented student at Miami Dade College, said losing access to in-state tuition would put her education on hold.
“I would just have to stop school for now, just because I can’t afford it,” Maldonado, who was born in El Salvador and brought to the U.S. as a child, told CBS Miami.
Maldonado, a nursing major with a 3.0 GPA, hopes to transfer to Florida International University to pursue a bachelor’s degree. Currently, she pays about $6,500 per year in tuition. If the repeal effort succeeds, that cost would nearly triple to $19,000 at FIU and other public universities.
The proposed repeal targets a 2014 law that granted in-state tuition rates to undocumented students, known as Dreamers, allowing them to pay the same rates as Florida residents.
“We’re here to defend in-state tuition because, again, it’s a commonsense solution,” said Yareliz Mendoza of the Florida Student Power Network, speaking at a press conference in northeast Miami.
Activists also criticized Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, who supported the 2014 law but recently withdrew her backing.
“Quite frankly, it’s sad that the lieutenant governor is bowing down to the pressure of an increasingly erratic governor,” Mendoza said.
CBS Miami reached out to several Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee for comment but has not yet received a response.
