Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Granting In-State Tuition to Illegal Immigrants
“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas”
It’s amazing that such a law was passed in Texas in the first place.
The College Fix reports:
Federal judge strikes down Texas law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants
A federal judge has blocked a Texas law that provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students at public universities who met certain requirements.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday. Within hours, Texas supported the Justice Department, and U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued a permanent injunction, striking down the policy, Inside Higher Ed reported.
The lawsuit claimed the Texas law violated federal law by giving illegal immigrant students tuition benefits that out-of-state U.S. citizens could not receive.
“It referenced a federal statutory provision that says that undocumented people can’t receive higher ed benefits unless citizens are also eligible,” according to Inside Higher Ed.
Under the struck-down law, illegal immigrant students were eligible for in-state tuition by meeting specific requirements, such as “graduating from a Texas high school, residing in Texas for at least three years prior and signing an affidavit promising to apply for permanent residency status,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
Meanwhile, U.S. citizens could access in-state tuition if they, or a parent, had resided in Texas for at least one year prior to enrollment.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton commended the decision in a statement.
“Today, I entered a joint motion along with the Trump Administration opposing a law that unconstitutionally and unlawfully gave benefits to illegal aliens that were not available to American citizens,” Paxton stated.
“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” he stated.
In 2001, Texas pioneered in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrant students when then-Governor Rick Perry signed the Texas Dream Act into law. Since then, more than 20 states have enacted similar legislation, according to Inside Higher Ed.
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There might be legal established ways for out-of-state residents to game the system and qualify as in-state resident. Live in state over 6 months per year. New state driver license, if college requires photo ID. Open PO Box, if college requires local address on forms. It might only be necessary to pay the higher out-of-state tuition for the first year of college.
It doesn’t matter. The statute specifically requires that terms available to illegal aliens who are resident in a state must also be available to all US citizens with no residence requirement at all. This Texas law clearly violates that provision. The requirements for illegal aliens are more onerous than those for US citizens elsewhere, but the fact remains that a US citizen who has no connection to Texas can’t get these benefits, while an illegal alien who has lived there for three years can, and federal law says that’s illegal.
College Fix got this partially wrong . . . This was a motion for entry of an agreement injunction, so it’s not like Judge O’Connor made a decision in a completely adversarial dispute.
DoJ filed suit, arguing that the Texas statute was unconstitutional. Texas AG’s office essentially said, “you know what? You are right. Rather than fight, we’ll agree to a permanent injunction nuking the law.” Judge O’Connor then just entered the requested order.
Was this a pre-arranged “sue and settle” deal between the Feds and Paxton’s office, designed to get rid of a Texas law neither of them liked (but for some reason the Texas Legislature would not eliminate)? It would not surprise me it it was, nor would it bother me. The left has been using that technique for decades (usually with civil rights or environmental activist organizations), so sauce for the goose . . . .
It’s not unconstitutional. It merely illegal, because there’s a federal statute that says states can’t do this.
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