{"id":641,"date":"2011-08-10T16:17:26","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T20:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=641"},"modified":"2011-08-15T17:47:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T21:47:04","slug":"the-argument-for-giving-illegal-immigrants-lottery-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/08\/10\/the-argument-for-giving-illegal-immigrants-lottery-scholarships\/","title":{"rendered":"The Argument For Giving Illegal Immigrants Lottery Scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images News<\/p>

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the DREAM Act<\/p><\/div>\n

StateImpact Florida’s Monday story<\/a> about the effect of new Bright Futures scholarship requirements on illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants prompted a number of comments <\/a>from readers asking why those students should get the lottery-funded scholarships — or any public benefits — at the expense of another student.<\/p>\n

The story also spurred Juan, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant who lives in Broward County and will graduate college this fall, to contact us about the story because he too has received a Bright Futures scholarship. Juan said he was the only illegal immigrant he knew of receiving Bright Futures. He recorded an interview earlier today.<\/p>\n

Juan’s family came from Venezuela on a visa, but missed a deadline for paperwork and lost their claim for citizenship. His case illustrates the complexities of immigration law, because at one point Juan was “living a normal life” with a driver’s license and other documents before losing those privileges.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Juan is also an advocate<\/a> for DREAM Act legislation<\/a>, which would make it easier for children who came to the U.S. illegally to earn citizenship and attend college. Juan argues the public has already paid to provide K-12 education to these students, so why risk losing the investment if they can not attend college or are deported?<\/p>\n

What’s your response to the interview? How should the state deal with these students? Any concerns about losing the investment Florida has made to educate these students?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

StateImpact Florida’s Monday story about the effect of new Bright Futures scholarship requirements on illegal immigrants or the children of illegal immigrants prompted a number of comments from readers asking why those students should get the lottery-funded scholarships — or any public benefits — at the expense of another student. The story also spurred Juan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1014,1013,1034],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}