Texas Senate hears bill to ban undocumented students from in-state tuition rates, aid
Texas lawmakers could soon decide whether to repeal a 24-year-old state law allowing students without legal authorization to be in the U.S. to access in-state tuition at public colleges and universities — potentially affecting 20,000 students.
In 2001, state lawmakers with bipartisan support passed House Bill 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act — which made access to higher education easier for thousands of students without legal status if they graduate from a Texas high school and have lived at least three years in the Lone Star State. These students are also required to sign an affidavit asserting their intent to pursue U.S. citizenship at their first opportunity.
Texas was the first state to pass such a law, and, like the current proposal to repeal it, legislative committees have in the past considered calls to do away with the provision. But as the Trump administration steps up efforts to deport people living in the U.S. illegally and international students who participate in pro-Palestinian advocacy or who have criminal violations, Florida has reversed its in-state tuition for students without legal status, and the Texas proposal's author, Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, has said the state must follow suit.
'Senate Bill 1798 addresses the long-standing concern of subsidized higher education benefits and free tuition being granted to individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States,' Middleton said at a Senate K-16 Education Committee hearing on the bill Tuesday. 'This ensures that public funds are reserved for students with legal standing in the United States and reinforces the importance of lawful status in accessing state benefits.'
Currently, 24 states, including Texas, grant students without legal status access to in-state tuition and 19 states, including Texas, also allow such students to access state financial aid. Students who are in the U.S. illegally do not have access to federal financial aid.
SB 1798 would bar students without legal status from accessing in-state tuition and from receiving state financial aid. Middleton said it's a 'necessary measure' to ensure the state is fiscally responsible.
He estimates that Texas lost $150 million per year from the roughly 20,000 students without legal status that pay in-state tuition as opposed to out-of-state tuition. According to Every Texan, a social justice advocacy nonprofit, students without legal status accounted for less than 3% ($17.3 million) of the state's total $579 million dispersed in financial aid and grants in 2021.
A study by the American Immigration Council, however, found that Texas could lose $461 million each year if residency standards are changed. This is because having a bachelor's degree increases such students' earning potential by 57%, helping the state through taxes, buying power and filling workforce needs, it states.
Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, who questioned the bill's purpose and warned of its potential effect, said SB 1798 would make it impossible for many people without legal status to attend and afford college despite such students in his district having often 'only known this country as their own' and having attended local schools and worked in and helped their communities.
'By all measures, they've established residency in this state,' Menéndez said. 'I don't agree with the premise that we lost $150 million because they should have been paying outside tuition because of the fact that they were living here.'
Several people who benefited from the state's DREAM Act testified Tuesday about how the bill transformed their lives, allowing them to pursue paths to education, successful careers and U.S. citizenship.
In-state tuition for public colleges and universities and in-district tuition for community colleges is designed to charge students from tax-paying families lower education costs, said Sarah Keyton, deputy commissioner for administration and operations at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, who testified as an expert witness.
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center states that persons in the U.S. regardless of immigration status pay taxes, with those without a Social Security number using an individual taxpayer identification number to do so, but they receive less in government benefits.
Testimony in the Senate hearing on SB 1798 lasted nearly three hours, with representatives for the Intercultural Development Research Association, Texas Civil Rights Project, ACLU of Texas, and the Council of Islamic-American Relations Texas testifying against the proposal and representatives from Texans for Strong Borders, True Texas Projects and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility for it.
Supporters of Middleton's bill emphasized how Texas must use discretion with its public money and argued that the existing law encourages or rewards unlawful residence. Those against the proposal said it would hurt the state economically and unjustly punish students who dream of opportunities as they find a path to citizenship.
One student, who expects to graduate in May from a UT System institution, testified against the bill in his cap and gown, saying he would not have been able to graduate without it.
In response to Menéndez's concern that this bill will stop students without legal status from attending higher education institutions and cost Texas money, Middleton retorted that 'our citizen constituents are going to fill those spots' and tuition won't go unpaid.
'If we had a secure border this whole time, this wouldn't be an issue,' Middleton said.
SB 1798 was left pending in committee Tuesday.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Senate hears bill to end Texas DREAM Act, restrict in-state tuition
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Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries: Sherrill won as many Democratic voters were weighing which candidate would be most electable and as each Democratic candidate pitched a different path forward for the party. Sherrill's victory suggests some Democratic voters want to dust off the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she flipped a longtime Republican-held House seat. In that campaign and in her primary run this year, Sherrill stressed her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a former federal prosecutor and pitched 'ruthless competence' as a counter to Trump. 'It just seems so obvious to me what the path forward is. It's effectively govern,' Sherrill recently told NBC News. 'And this is what I've been doing since 2018 when I first ran, right? ... I say to people, 'What's keeping you up at night?'' 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By late Tuesday evening, Ciattarelli was carrying all of the state's 21 counties. Ciattarelli's vote share was at 67% by late Tuesday evening, compared with just 22% for Spadea. State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who had been critical of Trump, had won just 6%, followed by two other candidates who had each won less than 3% of the vote. Ciattarelli thanked Trump in his victory speech for his 'endorsement and strong support,' making a joke about his being a 'part-time New Jersey resident.' (Trump owns a home and a golf course in Bedminster.) But Ciattarelli spent most of his speech focused on a general election argument, not on shoring up his base — indicative of the line he'll have to walk in a state Trump lost three times, even after the improvement he showed last year. Both parties are grappling with antiestablishment sentiment, wondering how to handle it, channel it or just avoid getting run over by it. 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He was winning 40% of the vote in Gloucester County while garnering 7% of the statewide vote. The county party endorsements were no guarantee of victory: The Essex County Democrats, for example, endorsed Sherrill. But as of late Tuesday evening, she was trailing Baraka in Essex County, where he is mayor of Newark, the state's largest city. Even in that instance, though, the party endorsement may have helped Sherrill cut Baraka's margins in his home base. Tuesday night's victory speeches were also important table-setters, indicative of how each party is looking to frame the general election. And New Jersey's general election this year may foreshadow much of what we see on the campaign trail around the country in the 2026 midterms. Outside of a quick thanks to Trump, Ciattarelli kept his focus tightly on Sherrill and New Jersey Democrats in his victory speech. He criticized her as 'Phil Murphy 2.0,' arguing that she has 'enabled every extremist and costly idea Phil Murphy has put forth,' and he even revived a key criticism of Murphy from his 2021 campaign. He also criticized Sherrill's focus on Trump as a deflection. 'Mark my words: While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power. Trust me ... if you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says 'Trump,' you'd be drunk off your ass every day between now and Nov. 4,' he said. 'But every time you hear her say 'Trump,' I want you to know what it really means: What it really means is Mikie doesn't have a plan to fix New Jersey,' he continued. During her victory speech, Sherrill leaned heavily on her biography but also emphasized a dual mandate — a fight against New Jersey Republicans and also against Trump, a recipe that Democrats have successfully leaned on in past midterm elections. Calling Ciattarelli a 'Trump lackey' who shouldn't lead the state, Sherrill criticized 'Trump and MAGA Republicans in D.C. [who] want to raise your taxes and take away your health care and education dollars.' 'This country is too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to hoist on her,' she said. 'The future is built on hard work and hope, and here in New Jersey, we're known for our grit, our tenacity — maybe a little bit for how loud we are — but it's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people,' she said. 'So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans.' Tuesday's results showed how money matters in campaigns — and how it has its limits. On the Democratic side, Sherrill won despite having been outspent by some of her opponents whose outside groups dropped millions of dollars on the race. The largest outside spender was Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the state's teachers union, which Spiller leads. The group had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign had spent $342,000. As of late Tuesday, Spiller had about 10% of the primary vote. Gottheimer and Fulop were also boosted by outside groups that spent millions of dollars on the airwaves. (Gottheimer drained his congressional account to fund the outside group supporting him.) Sherrill got support on the airwaves from One Giant Leap PAC, which spent less than either Gottheimer's or Fulop's groups but spent most of its funds in the final weeks of the race. Ciattarelli and an aligned outside group, Kitchen Table Conservatives, outspent the other Republicans. And Ciattarelli touted his strong fundraising as proof that he would be a formidable general election candidate. This article was originally published on
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