Feds sue Texas over long-standing law allowing undocumented students to receive in-state tuition
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas over its law allowing undocumented students to receive in-state tuition, days after the state Legislature adjourned without passing a bill to repeal the statute.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement that Texas is in conflict with federal laws and two recent executive orders from President Donald Trump that prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to benefit undocumented immigrants, including by offering in-state tuition.
'Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,' Bondi said in a statement Wednesday. '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.'
The lawsuit was filed in the Wichita Falls division of the Northern District of Texas, where U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor hears all cases. O'Connor, appointed by President George W. Bush, has long been a favored judge for the Texas attorney general's office and conservative litigants.
Texas has granted in-state tuition to undocumented students since 2001, when it became the first state to extend eligibility. A bill to end this practice advanced out of a Senate committee for the first time in a decade this year but stalled before reaching the floor.
The measure, Senate Bill 1798, would have repealed the law, and also required students to cover the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition should their school determine they had been misclassified. It would have allowed universities to withhold their diploma if they don't pay the difference within 30 days of being notified and if the diploma had not already been granted.
The measure, which was authored by Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston, would have also required universities to report students whom they believe had misrepresented their immigration status to the attorney general's office and tied their funding to compliance with the law.
Middleton is running for attorney general in next year's GOP primary, as incumbent Ken Paxton vacates the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.
The House contemplated similar legislation to Middleton's bill. Under House Bill 232 by state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, undocumented students 18 or older would have been required to provide proof that they had applied to become a permanent U.S. resident to be eligible for in-state tuition. That measure also died in committee.
To qualify for in-state tuition under current law, undocumented students must have lived in the state for three years before graduating from high school and for a year before enrolling in college. They must also sign an affidavit stating they will apply for legal resident status as soon as they can.
Texas Higher Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser told lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year that about 19,000 undocumented students have signed that affidavit.
At that time, Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, was pressing Rosser to provide more information about students who had signed affidavits, including how many receive financial aid from the state. Rosser said he was unsure.
'We have a constitutional duty regarding K-12, but higher education does not have that duty regarding funding of non-citizens,' Schwertner said. 'From a policy perspective, if we're for big, strong, secure borders and walls, then we should also be looking on the back end of what we incentivize, or not incentivize, individuals that are coming across our borders illegally against federal law and state law.'
Twenty-four states, including the District of Columbia, offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, but Florida repealed its law this year.
In 2023, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the University of North Texas can charge out-of-state students more than undocumented students. The court held that there may be 'valid preemption challenges to Texas' scheme,' but the lawsuit challenging UNT's system was not one of them.
Disclosure: University of North Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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