Twenty-four years after being the first in the nation to roll it out, a major perk for illegal aliens in Texas has vanished after the Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit to stop it and the Lone Star State's attorney general quickly agreed with the White House stance. Specifically, illegals will no longer be charged the in-state rate for college tuition.
The end came quite suddenly. Within hours of the US Department of Justice filing a complaint in the Northern District of Texas, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion asking Judge Reed O'Connor to rule in favor of the DOJ and declare in-state tuition for illegals unconstitutional. On the same day, O'Connor issued an order declaring that discounts favoring illegal aliens over non-Texan American citizens -- in contradiction of federal law -- violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, and permanently blocking Texas from giving such discounts.
Paxton, who's mounting a 2026 challenge of incumbent Republican John Cornyn to represent Texas in the United States Senate, raced to take credit for the outcome:
“Today, I entered a joint motion along with the Trump Administration opposing a law that unconstitutionally and unlawfully gave benefits to illegal aliens that were not available to American citizens. Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas.”
In 2001, Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition to illegals. Back then, Democrats had a slim majority in the state House, but the "Texas Dream Act" had bipartisan support, with only four of 181 legislators voting against it. Republicans bought into the idea that better-educated illegals would bolster the state's labor force and its economy, and then-Governor Rick Perry gave full support -- a stance he had to defend at a Republican debate during his failed 2012 presidential campaign. While this clip stops short, the audience answered with a mix of vigorous applause and hearty boos:
Since then, more than 20 other states created their own such rules. The tide is now clearly turning. In February, Florida's legislature eliminated a 10-year-old law granting in-state tuition to illegals who attended a Florida high school for three consecutive years before graduating. A bill that would have repealed the practice made it out of a Texas Senate committee earlier this year, but didn't have enough strength to be brought to the full Senate vote. That's all moot now.
For the 2024-25 academic year, in-state tuition discount saved a student attending Texas A&M University in College Station $27,894 a year, and the discount at the University of Texas at Austin was worth $33,220 a year, to take just two examples from the state's sprawling higher education system.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said US Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement. “The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.”
While the rules vary depending on the student's exact circumstances and status under DACA, about 30 states provide some level of in-state-tuition access for illegals. According to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, the most freewheeling states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
So, Ms. Bondi -- who's next?