Texas will no longer offer in-state tuition to college students without legal immigration status, following a federal lawsuit and a swift ruling that struck down the policy.
The change came just hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it was suing Texas for allowing individuals illegally residing in the state to qualify for lower tuition rates that were not available to U.S. citizens living elsewhere. In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly asked the presiding judge to rule in favor of the federal government, and the judge did.
In a one-page ruling, Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas declared the practice unconstitutional and invalid. His order, as Paxton requested, permanently bans Texas from enforcing the challenged provision, which has been part of its education law since 2001.
“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” Paxton said in a statement.
Before Wednesday’s ruling, Texas was one of 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, to grant in-state tuition to young adults lacking legal immigration status.
To qualify for in-state tuition under the now-invalidated law, a student had to reside in Texas for at least three years before graduating from high school and for a year before enrolling in college, and sign an affidavit promising to seek legal residency as soon as possible.
Two bills seeking to change the policy were introduced for the 2025 legislative session, but both failed to come to a vote.
The first measure, Senate Bill 1798, advanced out of a Texas Senate committee but stalled before reaching the floor. It would have repealed the law and also required students to pay the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. The bill also sought to revoke their access to state-funded scholarships, grants, and financial aid, and allowed universities to withhold their diplomas if tuition balances go unpaid.
In addition, the bill would have required universities to report students whom they believe had misrepresented their immigration status to the attorney general’s office and tied institutional funding to compliance.
The other proposal, House Bill 232, would have required students 18 or older to provide proof that they had applied to become a permanent U.S. resident to be eligible for in-state tuition, and allowed universities to verify a student’s residency status and reclassify students as non-residents before a semester begins. That measure died in committee.
“It took less time to enjoin this law than it would have taken me to repeal it on the floor of the House. Good work,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, said in response to Wednesday’s ruling.
This policy has been challenged in the courts before. In 2022, a district judge ruled that the University of North Texas cannot charge out-of-state U.S. citizens higher tuition than is charged to illegal immigrants who qualify for in-state tuition rates under the 2001 law.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later dismissed that ruling on procedural grounds, but acknowledged there were likely “valid preemption challenges to Texas’s scheme.” The DOJ repeatedly cited that finding throughout Wednesday’s lawsuit.
Bill Pan
Reporter
Bill Pan is an Epoch Times reporter covering education issues and New York news.
