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A Miami businessman has walked back a $1 million donation to Florida International University after lawmakers repealed in-state tuition for undocumented students, The Miami Herald reported.
Miguel Fernandez, a Cuban American businessman who told the newspaper he was a lifelong Republican until Donald Trump was elected in 2016, said the donation was intended for scholarships. But after the state abruptly hiked tuition on undocumented students earlier this year, Fernandez withdrew his donation in protest, calling the move “disheartening” in a letter to FIU officials.
“I cannot remain silent while thousands of Florida’s young residents are excluded from the opportunity to experience higher education. Many of these students are on the brink of graduation, while others face a future devoid of the educational opportunities they deserve,” Fernandez wrote in a letter to FIU officials obtained by the Herald.
Affected students will now see a 250 percent tuition increase, according to the newspaper.
Fernandez championed the legislation to provide in-state tuition for undocumented students, which passed in 2014 with the help of FIU president Jeanette Nuñez, who was a Republican lawmaker at the time. Nuñez, who resigned from her post as lieutenant governor in February to take the FIU job, has since reversed course on the legislation she once supported.
Earlier this year, while still lieutenant governor, she wrote in a social media post that the law had “run its course” and “Florida will not incentivize illegal immigration through this law or any other.”
That reversal prompted outrage from Fernandez.
“If I had to pay that price to betray children, I would rather be bankrupt. I find it immoral, and I find that a betrayal of the greatest level for someone to do this to her own community,” he said.
Fernandez has also expressed concern that FIU entered into a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as have multiple other public institutions in Florida.
