A scholarship program for undocumented students will end at eight Florida universities
TheDream.Us, a scholarship program that has paid the tuition for non-citizen students who have lived in the United States since they were very young, called “Dreamers,” has announced they will terminate scholarships for the 600-plus students they serve at eight Florida universities.
The decision to terminate the scholarships was primarily based on the fact that Florida revoked in-state tuition waivers for non-citizens, meaning they would be required to pay the out-of-state price of tuition at Florida universities, though many of the students have lived in the state since they were very young.
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“They are being barred from being able to afford their education,” said Gaby Pacheco, President and CEO of TheDream.US.
“These students are going on campus to get an education, to get a degree,” said Pacheco.
In-state tuition waivers for undocumented students are set to end July 1, part of a sweeping immigration bill passed in the Florida legislature.
Many of the students are recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, which provides legal status to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Others are applying for asylum, or have Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, that allows people from certain countries such as Venezuela and Haiti to live legally in the U.S.
Some students who received the scholarship only had a few credits left to graduate and were granted the waiver by their school administration through the summer semester, said Pacheco. TheDream.Us was planning to continue to pay until the end of summer.
But with the recent news of universities signing on to 287(g) collaborative agreements with ICE, which will deputize university police to act as immigration agents, TheDream.US has said it will terminate the scholarships now.
“We do not feel our students will be safe on campus, and it also goes against the values of our mission,” she said.
Pacheco says they are looking for other institutions to transfer students, such as private or online schools.
Florida International University has about 500 students who receive in-state tuition waivers, making it possibly the school in Florida with the highest number of “Dreamers” in the state. Statewide there are about 6,500 students who receive in-state tuition waivers.
FIU’s interim president Jeanette Nuñez once advocated for a bill granting in-state tuition to undocumented college students. Earlier this year she reversed her stance saying “our country looks very different today than it did then.”
This month, TheDream.US and allies went to Tallahassee to ask lawmakers to “grandfather in” the over 6,000 Dreamers to in-state tuition.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM.
