ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Undocumented students and DACA recipients can now receive financial help from colleges and universities to help them get through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, in a reversal of a Trump administration policy, the Biden administration announced a final rule that would no longer require college and universities to take a student’s legal status into consideration when administering federal emergency grants.

Colleges and universities received about $36 billion in emergency stimulus aid.

Joshua Bolona, who graduated from UCF about two years ago, said it will be a huge help for DACA recipients because they don’t receive federal loans and federal or state grants.

Instead, Bolona said he had to work and look for private grants to help pay for tuition.

“We would be the people that would either go to work or campus in the morning and the last ones to go home,” Bolona said.

He wasn’t at all shocked when DACA recipients were excluded from pandemic relief funds by the Trump administration, he said.

“Unfortunately, I think it’s something we’re used to,” Bolona said.

For that reason, it was great news to hear last week’s announcement, he said.

“The pandemic didn’t see any labels, whether it was with race, gender, immigration status,” Bolona said. “The pandemic affected everyone. It just makes sense.”

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the United States should take care of its DACA recipient.

Immigration reform also must be addressed he said.

“We’ve got to work to make sure we take care of the DACA recipients, and we’ve got to work to get logical immigration reform with a secure border,” Scott said.

Bolona said he agreed the emergency federal grants are a bandage. To him, the real solution is immigration reform that leads to a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.

Experts recommend DACA recipients get in touch with colleges or universities to find out how they can apply for emergency federal grants or to see whether any are still available.