Posted on 04/19/2014 9:15:12 AM PDT by kristinn
Gov. Rick Scott was just about to kick into gear his Hispanic outreach campaign when two top Republicans in the Florida Senate complicated the effort by unexpectedly blocking a priority bill that would give in-state tuition rates to some undocumented immigrants.
The abrupt procedural move by Senate President Don Gaetz and Senate budget chairman Joe Negron on Thursday caught Scott unaware along with fellow House Republicans and the party’s most respected former governor, Gov. Jeb Bush, who had privately asked some senators to hear the measure.
In a rare joint public statement, Bush, Scott and another former Republican governor, Bob Martinez, on Friday urged the Senate to take up the bill, which has majority support in the chamber.
One former governor stands to benefit the most from the Senate’s failure to take up the measure: Charlie Crist, a Democrat running against Scott who wants to keep Hispanics, the state’s fastest-growing demographic, voting against the GOP.
“It’s just sad that Rick Scott’s failed leadership means that some of our state’s best and brightest immigrants may still be denied access to in-state tuition,” Crist said in a statement.
“This is an issue where Republicans like Speaker Will Weatherford, working with Democrats, were trying to do the right thing,” Crist said, blaming the governor for “holding Florida back from her full potential — putting a college education further out of reach for bright, innocent students.”
Aside from the two Senate Republicans politically helping a Democrat campaign against a Republican, the situation has another irony: Crist was once a Republican who opposed the same bill that he now supports.
Scott, who also has reversed himself on the issue, made clear on Friday that he wants the Senate to pass the bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Citizens should be given preference over illegals , citizenship should have benefits over criminal activity, even if it was their parents.
If tuition is free to illegals/ non-documented
You are givening preference to criminal activity.
Think I am wrong ... go to Mexico as an "undocumented immigrant"
and the Mexican government will arrest you , and throw you in jail for three ( 3 ) years, no questions asked !!
Talk all you want about reciprocity, and "fairness"
but the current administration doesn't think about soverignty, .. or even borders
until it comes to Ukraine !!
Good. Why can't these illegals go back to there own country and get an education? As a long time resident of Florida and a natural born citizen, what do I get? My children?
Don’t give them jack!!! It only encourages more illegal immigration
BTW Many more unaccompanied children and teens are being caught at the Mexican border. The drug cartels are smuggling them across. Its the newest illegal immigrant scam. The procedure for these non-adults is to parole them to parents or relatives that live here who might also be illegal aliens.
IOW you are home free if you are younger than adult and illegally cross our border
Unreal. Well. Real but pathetic.
The last time I visited Florida was 17 years ago-but at that time the Hispanics I met there were either descended from escapees from the socialist paradise of Cuba, or had themselves escaped, whether they were legal or illegal. Has this changed?
That party seems like it simply can’t wait to destroy itself.
Apparently so.
What party? There is only one that's ruled by the elites. Whe these elites force The Hildabeast & Jeb Bush on us do you really see a difference in either?
The chance to pay for it all! And to be called a racist and xenophobe if you object in the slightest.
Every AMERICAN Citizen should be given preference over illegals
Illegals shouldn't eben be allowed to attend schools or colleges.
The more benefits they receive, and the easier it is for them to live as if they were citizens, the more they are attracted to enter illegally.
You cannot stop illegal or undesireable conduct by rewarding it.
The following blurb was allegedly written by Governor Jan Brewer in response to the Phoenix Suns owner’s opposition to Arizona’s illegal immigration law:
“What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?”
Interesting-I had not heard that illegals from Mexico were going to Florida-it is rather a long trip just to go break the law...
My dad was stationed in Puerto Rico when I was a kid, and the dialect they speak there bore little resemblance to the one we speak here in Texas and Northern Mexico, and is the same one I heard spoken in Florida. I learned the Spanish dialect spoken here as a child at home as a second language, and the dialect I heard in Florida is spoken faster, and there are a number of differences in the words for food items, formal terms, etc.
A far better option than giving illegals - criminals who have broken to law to come to Florida - lower tuition than US citizens would be to set a single tuition rate for all students.
Steve King is right. You might have 10,000 Dreamers.
9899 of them are Knuckleheads like Michelle Obama says of all youth. Just regular idiots like Rubio.
100 are criminals involved in some type of fraud, drug and other crimes.
1 is a Valedictorian.
As a “mixed breed” Florida transplant myself (1/8th Blackfoot)and a native born USA citizen, I have no particular affiliation with “Hispanics” from foreign Central and South American countries, or Mexican nationals.
We are now flooded with illegals from everywhere here!
Not just “Hispanics” from former Spanish colonies, but also Russians, Indians, Pakistanis, and you name it!
Few are actual legal and welcomed immigrants.
The Feds have been importing illegals into this nation for several decades, and we, the citizens of the USA, are close to achieving minority status now in many parts of this state.
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