Where does Rick Scott now stand on in-state tuition waiver for Dreamers that he signed into law?

by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
February 14, 2025

Rick Scott has yet to comment on legislation signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday that repeals the availability of in-state tuition rates for undocumented students at Florida colleges and universities.

That’s a far cry from two years ago, when the Florida Republican, who was just kicking off his campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate, couldn’t wait to speak out against the possibility of the law being repealed.

“When I think of that bill, I think about a little two- or five-year girl,” he began when asked by the Phoenix about DeSantis’ 2023 proposal to repeal the measure.

“They were brought here,” he added. “They didn’t come here on their own volition. They live in this country. They went to school. Maybe they’re an honor-roll student. Maybe they tried to get Bright Futures [scholarships], with the belief that they can go to one of our great universities in this state. So, for them we cannot put this thing out of reach for them to live their dream. That’s not fair. So, it’s a bill that I was proud to sign. I believe in it. I believe that these individuals ought to have the opportunity to live in this country. It’s a bill that I would sign again today.”

Perhaps Scott will respond similarly when he eventually does weigh in on the repeal of the 2014 law, now scheduled to go into effect on July 1. The Phoenix has reached out to his office twice in the past month, including on Thursday, to get his thoughts on the matter, but has yet to receive comment.

That wasn’t the case on Feb. 23, 2023. In fact, it was just the opposite.

Scott appeared that day for a roundtable discussion with supporters at La Teresita, a historic Cuban eatery in West Tampa, one of the most Hispanic-rich areas in Hillsborough County. An aide to the senator approached this reporter before the meeting, requesting that the senator be asked about DeSantis’ statements from earlier that day in favor of repealing the measure.

One Florida Republican who supported the 2014 legislation and now says she doesn’t is Jeanette Nuñez, who left her position as lieutenant governor last week after six years in office to become interim president of Florida International University.

“It’s been more than a decade since this law was passed,” she wrote on X last month after DeSantis said he wanted lawmakers to repeal the law. “Our country looks very different today than it did then. It’s time to repeal this law. It has served its purpose and run its course.”

Dissent within the GOP

Not all Florida Republicans feel that way.

On Thursday, four of them in the state Senate supported an amendment from South Florida Democrat Jason Pizzo that would have grandfathered in all students now paying in-state rates. They included Northeast Florida’s Jennifer Bradley and three others from Miami-Dade: Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia, Ana Maria Rodriguez.

Gaby Pacheco is a Miami immigrant rights advocate and former Dreamer. She says that besides being “short-sighted policy,” the repeal marks an end to what used to be a bipartisan point of consensus.

“We agree with Senator Rick Scott, who signed the policy into law and less than two years ago reflected that ‘It’s a bill I would sign again today,’” she told the Phoenix in an email.

“As even Donald Trump said last December about Dreamers: ‘These are people that have been brought here at a very young age… In many cases they’ve become successful. They have great jobs. Some of them are running small businesses…we’re going to have to do something with them.’

“We agree,” Pacheco added. “Unfortunately, making it harder for first-generation college students to afford and graduate from college is self-defeating for Florida and moves our state in the wrong direction.”

Deborah Tamargo is a former Republican state representative from Hillsborough County. She said that there are still many Florida Republicans who support helping dreamers.

“I don’t think the attitude has changed on Dreamers, and even President Trump tried to pass something [on dreamers] his first four years and he has said he’ll try to do something again to hold the dreamers harmless,” she said.

“Through no fault of their own they were smuggled, brought, whatever into our borders and they’ve grown up speaking English, integrating into our culture, and consequently I think many of us think that they’re harmless, okay? Don’t penalize them for something that their parents did.”

Shifting politics

“That was then. This is now, and the Republican Party has shifted under Trump in a large way,” said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett, in talking GOP politics over the past decade.

Following its 2012 presidential election loss, the Republican National Committee produced an “autopsy” report arguing the party needed extensive outreach to women, African American, Asian, Hispanic, and gay voters. It also called for backing “comprehensive immigration reform,” something that then-Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio pushed for as one of the bipartisan “Gang of 8” senators in 2013. That legislation included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. (Rubio backed away from that support when he ran for president in 2016. Now he’s Trump’s secretary of state.)

Jewett acknowledges the situation has changed and that concern about undocumented immigrants is at a much higher level for not only Republicans but the general public after the encounters with migrants at the U.S. Mexico-border peaked in December 2023, according to the Pew Research Center.

“So many Hispanics, particularly in Florida, have changed their allegiance to the Republican Party in the last four years,” he said. “A plurality of Hispanics were registered as Democrats [in Florida] four years ag0, but now it’s a plurality that are registered as Republican.”

That makes it easier for some in the GOP to take a hard line on issues like repealing in-state tuition for undocumented students and “they still apparently are going to get a lot of the Hispanic vote,” Jewett said.

Trump defeated Kamala Harris among Hispanic voters in Florida last year, according to an exit survey of 500 voters in Florida conducted by the 2024 American Electorate Poll of Hispanic Voters.

Meanwhile, Gov. DeSantis, fresh off signing legislation on Thursday cracking down on undocumented immigrants in Florida, said that not only was it wrong to give in-state tuition breaks to undocumented college students, but that the state’s universities should not admit any students who lack permanent legal status.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.