'Betrayal': Donor yanks $1 million from FIU over undocumented student tuition hike

Garrett Shanley, Miami Herald on Jun 24, 2025

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MIAMI — Miami businessman and philanthropist Miguel “Mike” Fernandez has suspended a $1 million donation to Florida International University in protest of Florida’s decision to strip in-state tuition benefits from undocumented students — a policy that was until recently endorsed by FIU’s new president, Jeanette Nuñez.

In a June 4 letter to Shlomi Dinar, dean of FIU’s Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs, Fernandez denounced the tuition hike as “punitive” and called for the state to restore “fairness and opportunity.” Fernandez’ now-suspended $1 million pledge was meant to fund first-generation student scholarships through the school’s Maurice A. Ferré Institute for Civic Leadership.

“I cannot remain silent while thousands of Florida’s young residents are excluded from the opportunity to experience higher education,” Fernandez wrote.

Fernandez, who describes himself as a lifelong Republican until the election of Donald Trump in 2016, did not mince words about Nuñez’s reversal on the tuition equity law she once championed. As a state legislator in 2014, Nuñez, who is Cuban-American, helped pass the law that allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition if they had gone to high school in the state for at least three consecutive years and enrolled in college within two years of graduating from high school, arguing at the time, “Let’s not hold these children responsible for actions that their parents took.”

But in January, shortly before stepping down as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lieutenant governor for the FIU job, Nuñez declared the law had “run its course” and that “Florida will not incentivize illegal immigration through this law or any other.”

Fernandez, a healthcare industry magnate, said he thought Nuñez’s about-face was “at the lowest level of ethical behavior”

“If I had to pay that price to betray children, I would rather be bankrupt,” Fernandez said in an interview Monday. “I find it immoral, and I find that a betrayal of the greatest level for someone to do this to her own community.”

The elimination of in-state tuition eligibility for undocumented students was part of the Florida GOP’s immigration package, signed by DeSantis in January. For students at FIU, tuition will jump from approximately $205 to $619 per credit hour, a 250% increase.

Just this year, 6,500 students across Florida — the majority of which are likely undocumented — have benefited from the in-state tuition rule. FIU, the nation’s largest Hispanic-serving institution, estimates about 500 students will be affected.

Fernandez, who arrived undocumented in the U.S. from Mexico in 1964, lobbied hard for the legislation for years before it was passed in 2014, still has a copy of the bill in his Coral Gables office.

“Mike was instrumental in that legislation passing,” said Will Weatherford, who served as House Speaker in 2014. Fernandez was “encouraging me and others to have an open heart to the concept that kids shouldn’t be punished for decisions of their parents, and it resonated.”

Nuñez, reached through an FIU spokesperson Monday, didn’t immediately respond for comment.

For Fernandez, the controversy extends beyond tuition. Earlier this year, FIU police voluntarily entered into an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorizing campus police to train officers to help identify and detain individuals suspected of immigration violations. The partnership, backed by Nuñez, has sparked protests from students and faculty concerned about racial profiling and fear among immigrant communities.

“No one in this county should be putting our citizens to be kidnapped by people in masks, without ID, who surround you and, in some cases, abuse you,” Fernandez said. “Our local law enforcement should not be sucked into that process of doing federal work.”

FIU officials defend the agreement, emphasizing officer training and adherence to state law, while President Nuñez maintains the partnership “upholds the rule of law.”

The tuition rollback is slated to take effect on July 1 for the 2025-26 academic year. The Florida Education Association warns that universities could lose up to $15 million in revenue as undocumented students priced out of public schools may leave Florida altogether. Since Florida canceled in-state tuition for undocumented students, TheDream.Us, a scholarship program for undocumented students, decided it would no longer fund scholarships at eight Florida universities. And just last week, the Board of Governors of the state’s university system voted to allow schools to increase out-of-state tuition by up to 10 percent.

For Fernandez, the fight transcends dollars and cents.

“Decades ago, children of undocumented immigrants faced exorbitant tuition fees,” Fernandez wrote in his letter to FIU. “After ten years of persistent efforts, we achieved a significant victory. It is troubling to see that progress undone.”