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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Johnson criticizes Paxton's handling of DREAM Act, calls redistricting ‘un-American'
AUSTIN (Nexstar)— State Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, accused Attorney General Ken Paxton of colluding with the federal government to eliminate a state program that helps longtime Texas residents attend college at in-state tuition rates. Johnson, D-Dallas, who announced his candidacy for attorney general, called Paxton's decision not to defend the Texas DREAM Act 'an outright act of collusion' and 'a subversion of democracy.' 'Ken Paxton went in there, colluded with the federal government, Donald Trump, obviously, to get rid of a program that was signed by a Republican governor and passed by a Republican legislature 24 years ago,' Johnson said. The DREAM Act allows certain undocumented immigrants who have lived in Texas for at least three years and graduated from a Texas high school to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. A federal judge struck down the program in January after the attorney general's office declined to defend it in court. In a statement after the decision, the Office of Attorney General sent a news release crediting Paxton for striking down the law. In the release, Paxton said the law '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,' Paxton added in the release. Johnson argued the program benefits Texas economically and has been consistently supported by Republican-controlled legislatures. 'These are kids who've been here mostly their whole lives. They've gotten good grades, they qualified to go into college. They want to become educated participants in our society, and we've paid to educate them already,' he said. The Democratic candidate criticized Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to call the current special session, particularly the inclusion of redistricting on the agenda. 'What's completely, completely illegitimate is this redistricting garbage. I find that offensive. I find it un-American, anti-democratic,' Johnson said. 'It's really just a way for them to insulate themselves from the wrath of the voters for having done a bad job.' Johnson acknowledged the challenges facing Democrats in statewide races but pointed to his 2018 Senate victory as evidence that change remains possible. 'When I ran to be a state senator in 2018 no one had won that no Democrat had won that seat in over 30 years, and people thought it was absolutely nuts to try. Well, we won it by eight points,' he said. The senator outlined his priorities for the attorney general's office, emphasizing traditional functions over high-profile litigation. 'I would be tackling things that people should be counting whether the Attorney General should be doing,' Johnson said, citing child support collection, protecting consumers from scams and market abuse and addressing political corruption. Johnson was the sole dissenting vote on a property tax relief measure for residents 65 and older, calling it a redistribution of wealth from working families to retirees. 'You're literally redistributing money. You're taking money from low income, working families struggling to pay their rent, and giving it, in many cases, two thirds of the cases, to retirees who have expensive homes,' he said. The Democratic primary for attorney general will be held March 3, 2026. Johnson will face former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski, who announced his candidacy earlier this month. Whoever wins the primary will face an uphill battle in the general election against one of three Republicans seeking the nomination: Sens. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, and Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, as well as former Department of Justice attorney Aaron Reitz. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ coordinated with Texas AG to kill Texas Dream Act, Trump official says
WASHINGTON — A top Justice Department official boasted at a private Republican gathering that the Trump administration was able to kill a Texas law that gave undocumented immigrants in-state tuition 'in six hours' by coordinating with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a recording obtained by NBC News. On June 4, the Justice Department sued Texas over the Texas Dream Act, then quickly filed a joint motion with Texas asking a judge to declare the law unconstitutional and permanently enjoin Texas from enforcing the law. The same day, the judge did. Outside organizations sought to invalidate the ruling Tuesday, arguing that the Justice Department and Paxton's office 'colluded to secure an agreed injunction' and engaged in improper 'legal choreography' to obtain their desired outcome. Speaking at the Republican Attorneys General Association a day after the quick court victory, Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli seemed to confirm that. 'So just yesterday, we had filed a lawsuit against Texas, had a consent decree the same day, or consent judgment, and it got granted hours later,' Kambli told participants, according to audio obtained by NBC News. 'And what it did was, because we were able to have that line of communication and talk in advance, a statute that's been a problem for the state for 24 years, we got rid of it in six hours.' Kambli, who previously worked for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, added that the Justice Department has 'good relationships' with state attorneys general, which allows it to 'get things done.' Kambli also said the second Trump administration 'is learning how to be offensive-minded," according to the audio. 'I think that was the biggest critique the first time around in the first Trump administration — there were a lot of missed opportunities to wield federal government power for the things that we value that just never happened,' Kambli said. 'But this time we've brought in a lot of people from state AG world that have done that kind of litigation, know how to do it and have been doing it.' Paxton's office did not respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesman did not dispute that Kambli made the statements and said it was 'pretty standard' for Justice Department lawyers to notify state attorneys general of federal lawsuits ahead of time. He cited a Justice Department policy that providing fair warning to state attorneys general before filing lawsuits could 'resolve matters prior to litigation.' The Justice Department filed the lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, a George W. Bush nominee in the Wichita Falls Division in the Northern District of Texas whose court has become a destination for conservative litigants seeking favorable outcomes. The groups Democracy Forward, the ACLU Foundation of Texas and the National Immigration Law Center filed a motion Tuesday on behalf of La Unión del Pueblo Entero, a union founded by César Chávez. They argued that the sequence of events 'compels one conclusion: the United States and the Texas Attorney General colluded to predetermine the outcome of the case.' The motion added: 'The founders did not design our adversarial system for shadowboxing between co-parties. The system demands opposition, argument, and deliberation — not consent decrees masquerading as litigation." Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, criticized Paxton for not defending the bipartisan Texas Dream Act, which the Legislature passed and Gov. Rick Perry signed more than two decades ago. She noted that the Legislature had declined to repeal the law. Paxton recently announced that he is going to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary next year — a GOP-versus-GOP battle between two men who have been sparring for years and vying for President Donald Trump's attention. 'Instead of defending the law of Texas ... Attorney General Paxton colluded with the Trump-Vance administration to try to eliminate the law through the courts,' Perryman said in a statement. 'This maneuver is a misuse of the courts. If Attorney General Paxton will not defend Texans, we will. We are committed to ensuring that this cynical move is opposed, to defending the Texas Dream Act, and to supporting the courage of our clients.' Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law said the heads of the Texas House and Senate should be concerned that Paxton's office declined to defend a state law. "The whole American premise of settling a case is that you have people who have conflicting interests and that's why they're in court to begin with," Tobias said. "But of course, we know for political reasons, they're probably not." Saikrishna Prakash of the University of Virginia School of Law, who has researched the duty of state attorneys general to defend laws in all 50 states, said more attorneys general are willing to say laws are unconstitutional. "Part of the reason why they're more willing to do that is a political reason, that they want to be senator or a governor," he said. Prakash said that across Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, there has recently been a tendency to settle when a litigant takes a position the administration supports. Administrations also want settlements that will bind the next president to policies their parties support. "In my mind, it's not a good way to run a railroad, whether done by Biden or by Trump," Prakash said. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is suing more states over in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. The Justice Department sued Kentucky last week over its policy of giving in-state tuition to undocumented migrants. On Wednesday, the Justice Department sued the state of Minnesota over its law doing the same. In both instances, the Justice Department pointed to the outcome in the Texas case as justification. This article was originally published on
CBS News
05-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Texas Dream Act allowing in-state tuition for undocumented students dismantled
For over 20 years, thousands of undocumented students have benefited from the Texas Dream Act. The law gave college students without legal residency access to reduced in-state tuition. "All three of my brothers and sisters are college graduates. We made it, but we are a very small percentage of people who, because of HB 1403, because of in-state tuition, were able to make it," said Cesar Espinosa, a Texas Dream Act recipient. Wednesday, just hours after the Department of Justice filed suit challenging the Texas law, a federal judge blocked the Texas Dream Act, calling it "unconstitutional and invalid." The law was passed in the state legislature in 2001 with bipartisan support. Domingo Garcia who was a state representative at the time and helped write the bill is calling this latest development "mean-spirited." "The recent remarks and actions targeting the Hispanic community in Texas are deeply concerning and do not reflect the values of fairness, justice, and equality that our society is built upon," said Garcia. There have been efforts in the legislature to eliminate the Texas Dream Act. In April, Espinosa was one of dozens of people who testified against a bill to tear it down. "It took me 33 years to get my status. I wanted to get status when I was 5, I wanted to get status when I was 10, I was dying to get status when I was 18 and was accepted to Yale, and Brown and Cornell University," said Espinosa. Many are also highlighting the economic consequences this repeal will bring. According to a report by Every Texan, Texas Dream Act students paid $81.6 million in tuition and fees in 2023. "The Texas Dream Act is one of the rare pieces of legislation that over 20 years people who have tried to come and mess with it have failed because it was designed so well to do what it was supposed to do what it was supposed to do, which is recoup the investment that we make on students," said Jaime Puente, Director of Economic opportunity, Every Texan.
CBS News
05-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Texas agrees to end in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants after DOJ lawsuit filed against the state
Texas has agreed to end in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants. The Department of Justice sued Texas on Wednesday over a long-standing state education policy, which it says illegally favors undocumented foreign students. The lawsuit accuses Texas of discriminating against out-of-state American students by offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants. That same day, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a joint motion along with the Trump administration to end the law. It's one of the latest efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on immigration into the country. President Trump issued two executive orders to prevent "benefits or preferential treatments" from going to undocumented immigrants. A 2001 Texas law made "dreamers" eligible for in-state tuition A two-decades-old law allows undocumented immigrants who live in the state to pay in-state tuition. In 2001, Texas passed a law allowing those referred to at times as "dreamers" to become eligible for in-state tuition if they meet certain residency criteria. The DOJ said that policy is unconstitutional. Paxton agreed and, in a legal filing, asked the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting Texas from enforcing the law. "Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens," Attorney General 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." Paxton's filing states "[i]n direct and express conflict with federal law, Texas education 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-based tuition rates to U.S. citizens that do not qualify as Texas residents." The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas agreed and entered a final judgment declaring the law unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against its application. "In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended," Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X. "Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants." Continuing changes Texas lawmakers have made previous attempts to change the law, but it has never made it out of a legislative session. Last month, the state senate advanced a bill that would disqualify undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition. That bill would require those who have previously received in-state tuition to pay back the difference. Twenty-four other states and Washington, D.C., offer in-state tuition for dreamers. Florida did too, but repealed the 2014 law earlier this year. That takes effect on July 1.
The Independent
04-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Justice Department sues Texas over in-state tuition for students without legal residency
The Justice Department on Wednesday sought to block a Texas law that for decades has given college students without legal residency in the U.S. access to reduced in-state tuition rates. Texas was the first state in the nation in 2001 to pass a law allowing ' Dreamers,' or young adults without legal status, to be eligible for in-state tuition if they meet certain residency criteria. Several states followed suit and have since passed similar legislation. The lawsuit filed in Texas federal court asks a judge to block the law, which some state Republican lawmakers have sought to repeal for years. 'Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,' said Attorney General Pam Bondi said. '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.' About 57,000 undocumented students are enrolled in Texas universities and colleges, according to the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a nonpartisan nonprofit group of university leaders focused on immigration policy.
