Children of immigrants in the state illegally would be eligible for in-state tuition in Florida under a measure unanimously approved Wednesday by a House panel, a move fast-tracked by House Speaker Will Weatherford and freighted with election-year politics.
The legislation (CS/HB 851) was advanced 13-0 by the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, its last stop before a full House vote. The hurry-up pace is both remarkable and a reversal, given that Republicans, who control the Legislature, have annually killed similar legislation for more than a decade.
A day earlier, Weatherford, in convening the House into session underscored the priority status of the legislation, saying it made sense economically and morally.
“There are children, through no fault of their own, who live in our state, are educated in our public schools, and yet…we shut the door on their future,” Weatherford told House members. “We no longer treat them as Floridians.”
Democrats have steadily supported the legislation. But committee member Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, said Wednesday he had only one question about the bill.
“I just don’t know why this took so long.” Taylor said.
Similar proposals have been made since at least 2001 – but were promoted chiefly by Miami-Dade County Republicans and most Democrats.
But conservative Republicans in the Legislature – whose influence was enhanced with the rise of the tea party movement — sidetracked the effort each year. They said the tuition break effectively rewarded families illegally in the country.
Students would be eligible for in-state tuition if they attended three straight years of high school in Florida and apply for college admission within two years of graduation. Residency could be established by proof of a driver’s license, homestead exemption, vehicle registration, voter card or other documents “evidencing family ties in Florida,” according to the legislation.
Average non-resident tuition costs $21,434 annually, compared with the average $6,318 in-state fee.
Florida’s shifting demographics have caught the attention of strategists for both parties. With a bruising governor’s race underway, the tuition bill may emerge as a GOP peace offering to Hispanics, who have increasingly sided with Democratic candidates.
President Barack Obama has embraced such legislation as part of Dream Act efforts to grant residency status to undocumented aliens. He has overwhelmingly carried the Florida Hispanic vote the past two presidential elections.
Meeting last month at the Capitol with Miami-Dade County lawmakers, Gov. Rick Scott said that he would “consider” the tuition bill. Scott was joined at the meeting by Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who he recently named as the state’s first Hispanic lieutenant governor.
For Scott, the stance also stood in contrast with his 2010 campaign, when he promised to crack down on illegal immigration with a strict, Arizona-styled law. He later abandoned the effort.
Still, Florida’s 1.5 million Hispanic voters loom as critical in this fall’s governor’s race.
A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed that while Scott trails Charlie Crist by 8 percentage points, he loses Hispanic voters to his Democratic rival by 52-26 percent, a stunning two-to-one margin.
Nicholas Wulff, 23, who with his twin brother, Esteban, testified before the House subcommittee Wednesday, said Republican leaders are aware that the party’s usual hawkish stance on immigration does not help win support from Hispanics.
The Wulff brothers attend Florida International University and came from Bogota, Colombia at age 5. Their mother had already been in Miami for three years, working as a domestic.
Although they have been honors students and attended Miami-Dade public schools, at Florida universities they are considered out-of-state students because they are not naturalized citizens.
“The last two elections have shown Republicans they have to do more to attract Hispanic voters, or they are going to lose their majority in this Legislature,” Nicholas Wulff said. “Eighteen other states have already granted in-state tuition to undocumented people. We’re hoping Florida is the 19th this year.”
While Weatherford has pledged to shepherd the legislation through the House, it still faces a stern test in the Senate.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, says he opposes the idea of granting in-state tuition to families in the country illegally. But Gaetz said he will allow the measure to get a full Senate vote, although he felt a majority there remained opposed.
Rep. Marlene O’Toole, R-Lady Lake, whose district includes a portion of the sprawling retirement complex, The Villages, a Central Florida Republican hotbed, acknowledged that the legislation would draw “mixed reviews” among many voters back home.
“Some will look at it as a giveaway to illegal immigrants,” O’Toole said. “But I think others also will look at it as something that, morally, is the right thing to do.”
Rep. Jeanette Nunez, R-Miami, House sponsor of the legislation, acknowledged there is a mood swing among House Republicans. But she downplayed politics as a motive.
“This issue is a very sensitive issue,” Nunez said. “But I think for a long time states and particularly Florida had hoped that the federal government would resolve this issue once and for all….I think we finally realized we had to take a step forward with regards to the aspects of immigration that we do control.”
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