Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Monday signed a bill into that allows undocumented students to qualify for in-state college tuition. Scott signed the bill in private but will hold a public signing at a campaign event in Fort Myers later in the afternoon, Fox News Latino reported.

Under the law, students who have been living in the country illegally need to have attended a Florida high school for at least three years prior to graduate if they are to receive the in-state tuition rates. Currently in-state students pay one-quarter of the rate that out-of-state students are charged.

The bill passed with strong support from Scott and House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

Scott said the groundbreaking bill was important help keep college tuition rates down, Fox reported.

"Singing this historic legislation will keep tuition low, and allow all students who grew up in Florida to have the same access to affordable higher education," Scott said in a statement. "With this legislation, higher education became more affordable and more accessible to all Floridians."

The recent law that allowed universities to raise tuition rates up to 15 percent a year was repealed under the new law, which now restricts Florida universities from increasing rates above the price set each year by the state's lawmakers. However, the University of Florida and Florida State University can still manage its own rates but can only raise tuition up to 6 percent without legislator approval.

Scott's approval comes amid a tough re-election fight he faces this year as he tries to win the Hispanic vote. Initially, the governor vowed in his campaign four years ago not to approve in-state tuition for undocumented students and also said he would push for tougher anti-immigration legislature, according to Fox.

Over the past decade, similar in-state college tuition measures had been introduced several times but never passed. It was met with some GOP support including then-Gov. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio when he was in the Legislature but still drew a bit of criticism from many of the state's Republican lawmakers.

Again, this year's proposal was met with heavy opposition from Republicans as several GOP state senators including Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach) cited a cost of nearly $50 million of taxpayer dollars being used to assist the undocumented immigrants.

"I know it feels good giving benefits away," Bean said. "We are giving so many benefits to non-citizens ... Does it matter even being an American citizen anymore?"