DOJ sues Texas over giving undocumented residents in-state tuition
The Trump administration is suing to overturn Texas law that allows residents without legal status to pay in-state tuition rates at public universities.
The Department of Justice filed the complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. It's the latest move in President Donald Trump's bids to reshape both higher education and immigration in advancement of an aggressive 'America First' agenda.
'Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said 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.'
Former Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who served as Trump's energy secretary during the president's first term, made Texas the first state in the nation to grant in-state tuition eligibility for certain undocumented students when he signed the Texas Dream Act in 2001. More than 20 states followed suit, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.
The Texas law has survived multiple attempts to repeal it in the decades since.
'In direct conflict with federal law, Texas law specifically allows an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States to qualify for in-state tuition based on residence within the state, while explicitly denying resident tuition rates to U.S. citizens that do not qualify as Texas residents,' the DOJ wrote in its complaint.
Gov. Greg Abbott's office and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.
Some Republicans nationwide have begun to target in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. Florida Republicans earlier this year repealed a measure that granted in-state tuition to undocumented students who attended Florida high schools.
This isn't the first time Trump has looked to crack down on non-U.S. citizens in American colleges.
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a push to 'aggressively revoke' visas for Chinese international students, specifically for 'those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' The details behind the measure remain unclear, but Trump's allies spent years preparing the policy.
The White House has also sought to cut off Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, who comprise roughly 27 percent of the university's student body.
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