A Texas program that allowed illegal immigrants to pay the same rate as state residents when attending public colleges has been discontinued after the federal government intervened.
The law took effect in 2001, according to the Associated Press, at a time when various policy efforts were being directed at so-called “Dreamers,” who were children when their illegal immigrant parents entered the United States.
Republican Rick Perry was the governor of Texas at the time.
On Wednesday, the federal government sued Texas to end the law.
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state would not fight against the federal lawsuit, paving the way for the case to be decided in the federal government’s favor.
In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended.
Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/auADfaUD6g
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 4, 2025
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the law as applied to someone “not lawfully present in the United States” is indeed “unconstitutional and invalid.”
About two dozen states have similar laws.
O’Connor was appointed by former President George W. Bush, according to the New York Post.
The outlet noted that the federal lawsuit said “federal law prohibits illegal aliens from getting in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state U.S. citizens.”
“There are no exceptions. Yet the State of Texas has ignored this law for years,” the lawsuit said. “This Court should put that to an end.”
AP reported that there is a huge difference in tuition rates. At the University of Texas at Austin, tuition for a state resident was about $11,000 in the 2024-2025 academic year against $41,000 for natives of other states.
“The Justice Department commends Texas leadership and AG Ken Paxton for swiftly working with us to halt a program that was treating Americans like second-class citizens in their own country,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
“Other states should take note that we will continue filing affirmative litigation to remedy unconstitutional state laws that discriminate against American citizens.”
Paxton said it was time for the state law to crumble.
“I’m proud to stand with Attorney General Bondi and the Trump Administration to stop an unconstitutional and un-American law that gave in-state tuition to illegal aliens,” he said.
“This law was an insult to our nation’s citizens and has now been rightly stopped from being enforced. I will continue to fight for the American people and work swiftly to defeat any policy that puts illegal aliens ahead of our own citizens,” he said.
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