After the Trump administration contested the law, a federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred Texas from implementing a state law that permits illegal aliens residing in the Lone Star State to pay in-state tuition rates for public universities.
In a filing filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed with the Justice Department’s argument that the act “expressly and directly conflicts” with federal immigration law, leading to the repeal of the two-decade-old law.
According to District Judge Reed O’Connor, “[T]he Court hereby declares that the challenged provisions … as applied to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States, violate the Supremacy Clause and are unconstitutional and invalid.”
“The Court also hereby permanently enjoins Defendant as well as its successors, agents, and employees, from enforcing Texas Education Code § 54.051(m) and § 54.052(a), as applied to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States,” O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush stated.
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, announced on X that “in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended” following the decision.
“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” Paxton stated.
The Trump administration claimed that “federal law prohibits illegal aliens from getting in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state U.S. citizens” in a complaint filed just before Paxton entered the state’s joint petition in the case.
“There are no exceptions. Yet the State of Texas has ignored this law for years,” according to the lawsuit. “This Court should put that to an end.”
During the reign of former Republican Governor Rick Perry, who was President Trump’s first term’s energy secretary, the Texas Legislature passed the 2001 state law.
The law allowed illegal immigrant students who had lived in Texas for at least three years prior to graduating from high school and who promised to apply for permanent legal status to pay significantly less in tuition than out-of-state students. It remained in effect despite multiple attempts by Republicans to repeal it in the legislature.
For instance, according to the University of Texas at Austin, in-state students pay between $10,858 and $13,576 in tuition per year, while out-of-state students pay between $40,582 and $48,712.
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These laws, which are currently in effect in dozens of states, were originally passed in Texas.
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a statement prior to the judge’s decision that “under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to US citizens.” “To ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the nation, the Justice Department will fight tirelessly to uphold federal law.”
The DOJ’s complaint stated that the action was prompted by Trump’s executive orders in February, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” and April, “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens.”
