Florida House: Resident In-state Tuition for Illegal Aliens passes by vote of 81-33! Did they read the bill?

Floridians for Immigration Enforcement (FLIMEN) states, “When immigration is viewed only racially and culturally, limits and legality will never be imposed.  The debate must focus on limitations and lawfulness, otherwise open borders will make the United States a marketplace and not a country.”

Florida resident Tad MacKie was perplexed at the overwhelming vote in the House of Representatives to grant illegal aliens resident in-state tuition to Florida’s colleges and universities. In an email to his representatives and senators MacKie states:

Rep’s Pilon, Steube and Boyd,

Thank you all for your NO votes on HB 851… You each are part of the few who actually took your fiduciary duty to the citizens of Florida, in general, and to your constituents, in particular, seriously.

It is a shame that 70% of your “colleagues” do not, including two from the Sarasota/Manatee delegation.

Rep’s Rouson and Holder,

The two of you, on the other hand, apparently believe that $700/year, from EVERY legal household in Florida, is just, somehow, not enough to give to, or spend because of, those people who have seen fit to break into our Country and our State. You have chosen to completely ignore the rights of, and your fiduciary duty to, EVERY person in your respective districts and in Florida who is either a citizen or those more-than-welcomed immigrants who have been respective of our laws… How dare you?.. You have brought both dishonor and shame on yourselves and the office with which the LEGAL citizens and voters have entrusted you.

Senators Detert and Galvano,

It is my fervent hope and desire that both of you will show the wisdom, fortitude and respect for your office, your constituents and the rule of law, as Rep’s Pilon, Steube and Boyd have, when the same question is brought before you.

For the rest of my readers,

How did YOUR “Representative”, that is, the person who, supposedly, represents YOU, vote on the issue of granting tuition waivers to ILLEGAL aliens? By the way, that “in-state tuition”…? Well… It amounts to right about $13, 500, per year, per student, out of your tax money.

See the “Summary Analysis” and “Full Analysis” of the bill.

The Summary Analysis does not even mention that illegals will be given waivers and neither the Summary nor Full Analysis states what the fiscal impact will be on the state education budget.

If the Representatives only read the Summary Analysis, they didn’t even know what they were voting on.

The Full Analysis reads:

The bill provides that students, regardless of immigration status, who attend a Florida high school for 3 consecutive years and enroll in an institution of higher education within 24 months after graduation are not required to pay out-of-state fees, provided they submit their high school transcript as documentary evidence of attendance and graduation. While these students are not classified as residents for tuition purposes, they may be reported for purposes of state funding[Emphasis added]

MacKie points out the “Summary Analysis” exempts the following types of students from the payment of out-of-state fees:

Veterans of the United States Armed Forces, including reserve components, who physically reside in Florida while enrolled in a Florida postsecondary institution; and

Students who attend a Florida high school for 3 consecutive years and enroll in a postsecondary institution within 24 months after graduation, provided they submit their high school transcript as documentary evidence of attendance and graduation.”

“You’ll notice the Summary Analysis does NOT say “regardless of immigration status”, as does the actual bill and the Full Analysis [above]. The point being that IF the house member did not read the entire “Full Analysis”, he/she could have easily misinterpreted the meaning and intent of the bill,” writes MacKie.

Click here to view how each member of the Florida House of Representatives voted on HB 851.

FILMEN concludes, “The bottom line nationally is that illegal immigration continues to hurt American families, take away jobs and depress wages of fathers and mothers who desperately want to support their children without going on welfare. The bottom line here in Florida is HB851/SB1400 will cause an unknown number of legal students to be displaced from college by illegal alien students. There is absolutely no estimate of the fiscal cost of college tuition subsidy for illegal aliens.”

Many see this as Republicans pandering for votes among Florida’s Hispanic population. Dr. Larry Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education, wrote, “Sound policy requires that we consider long-run effects and all people, not simply short-run effects and a few people. If you encourage something, you get more of it; if you discourage something, you get less of it.”

The short term effect of Republican pandering to get Hispanic votes harms all Floridians in the long run. Rewarding lawlessness will cause more lawlessness. The floodgates to our colleges and universities are now wide open to illegal aliens. People who have broken the laws of this land will be sitting next to legal students thumbing their collective illegal noses at them.

Is this vote is just one step towards a vote for amnesty? That is the question.

RELATED STORY: Jeb Bush Praises Illegal Immigrants as ‘Risk Takers,’ Defends Common Core

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