Texas Ends Taxpayer-Funded Tuition For Illegal Aliens
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens.”
Texas has finally ended what amounts to a decades-long incentive for illegal immigration: taxpayer-funded in-state tuition. For over twenty years, Texas laws required state colleges and universities to offer reduced tuition to aliens, whether they were here legally or not.
Late yesterday, those laws abruptly came to an end, only hours after the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the state from enforcing them.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott announced the parties’ joint consent on X:
In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended.
Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/auADfaUD6g
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 4, 2025
Enacted in 2001, the Texas Dream Act granted eligible undocumented students access to in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities—a benefit denied to citizens from other states.
But that’s discrimination against our own citizenry, and it’s illegal. “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 announcing the short-lived lawsuit yesterday. “The Texas laws blatantly conflict with federal law and are thus in conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
The federal government’s complaint follows two executive orders recently signed by President Trump: “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” to ensure that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens; and “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens,” to countermand state laws like the one in Texas that offer in-state education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.
By early last night, United States District Judge Reed O’Connor had declared the Texas laws unconstitutional and invalid, blocking the state from enforcing them.
That such laws were even on the books in Texas came as a surprise to the state’s citizens. They were outraged:
What???!!! We were giving in-state tuition privileges to non Texans and that too illegals???!!!
I always thought Texas was conservative and would not waste our money and encourage illegals like this. But here we are!!!
Glad you all finally decided to stop this stupidity!
Now…
— Jayshree Mavankal (@jmavankal) June 5, 2025
The Texas Legislature was mulling a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving in-state college tuition rates but still hadn’t passed it.
Texans demanded to know why it took “47” to get the job done:
Can I ask an obvious and sincere question here? Why did it take 47 to make Texas do the right thing here? @TexasGOP
— Dennis Faulkner (@DennisFaul14852) June 5, 2025
It’s a shame the legislature didn’t have the guts to do this.
— Michael Quinn Sullivan 🇺🇸 (@MQSullivan) June 4, 2025
Why did the federal government have to sue Texas to get it done? Seems to be an obvious choice. Thank you, @POTUS Now let’s stop the THC ban since it’s legal federally.
— SacredThreads (@SacredThreadsK) June 5, 2025
Why did this take so long? Why did it take the federal government stepping in to stop it? Why is Texans' tax money being spent on everything but Texans? Why are you such a freaking globalist traitor? pic.twitter.com/3jM1yHZYAb
— WeeWillie (@WWiilie) June 5, 2025
Texas isn’t the only state that has given illegal aliens preferential tuition benefits. Campus Reform reports that 23 other states allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition.
Now that the federal government has done what Texas failed to do on its own—making sure American citizens “are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country”—we’ll be watching to see which of those states is next on the DOJ’s hit list.
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Comments
“Texas ends tax payer funded tuition for illegal aliens.
They should’ve never had it in the first place. Duh!
Exactly!!
Always chapped my britches
Good for Texas!
If the Federal government removed every bit of money that is going to support illegal aliens in any form they would be well on their way to balancing the budget.
And Well on their way to the illegals self deporting
Yet further evidence that Texas RINOs have been running the legislative show in TX for the past several decades.
so if thats americas solid red state
man the country is in bigggg trouble
for them even having it in the first place
All it shows me is what I have thought for years. The rootin’ tootin’ six-shootin’ Ford King Ranch Dually-drivin’ Texan is all talk, and no do.
If you’re gonna sass, at least get the idiom right:
“All hat, and no cattle”
The rootin’ tootin’ six-shootin’ Ford King Ranch Dually-drivin’ Texan is all talk, and no do.
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then you haven’t met very many
Yes it is, I live here
Yes it is, I live here
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perhaps but your psychosis was birthed in milwaukee–you know about as much about texas as w does (or thinks he does)
Perry also gave us toll roads in central Tx
Such BS
I was surprised driving through DFW seeing all the signs for toll lanes. Then you get letter in the mail one month later telling you to pay fine because you don’t have toll tag. Its scam to generate revenue from drivers who don’t live in area.
Chris Salcedo has been sounding the alarm that a lot of Texas Republican legislators are actually Democrats. They just can’t run and win as Democrats.
yeah months back I was reading where they were choosing their house speaker and the pro maga guy lost
god help us
And the losers will blame Californians, just like Oregonians and Washingtonians have done for decades, not realizing many of “their own” have been voting for bad things for a long time.
they think they are delaying the violence ( and maybe they are for the moment) but lefty wont stop
so then the military etc go woke>>left and then the military will choose not to protect the constitution ( b/c its of course evil and white patriarchy)
I know that it is a dream, but I would love to see Texas put the money spent on hostile, foreign, invaders in violation of the law and good sense; and use it to fortify the Texas-Mexican border except for designated crossing points where the laws for entry would be enforced BAMN.
Subotai Bahadur
All their other borders, too.
a benefit denied to citizens from other states
Yes. But, isn’t it also denied to illegal aliens living in other states?
So, it’s not really any more discriminatory than regular in-state resident tuition rates.
Seems that is a bad direction for this.
Downvoter want to say why? I want to hear the argument against what I said.
I’m certainly not claiming it was a good idea for Texas to setup illegal aliens as “residents”, but it seems this argument will have bad consequences down the line.
The point isn’t that it’s discriminatory. The conditions for resident illegal aliens are tougher than those for residents of other states. The point is that there is a specific federal statute banning benefits for illegal aliens that are not also available to citizens who live in other states. So if an illegal alien who’s lived in Texas for three years gets benefits, while a citizen must have lived in Texas for one year, even though the citizen’s requirements are less onerous than those for the alien, it’s still illegal.
The link embedded to the tools at Campus Reform allow us to view who h States allow or refuse to allow multiple benefits to Students across both illegal aliens broadly and the DACA subset for illegal aliens. Spend a few minutes and see where your own State stacks up. Very interesting.
That was rammed thru 20 years under TX gov rick perry. That was bush era of establishment republicans, with some policies that have since fallen out of favor.
And never should have been – for a Texan or an American patriot – in favor.
‘Compassionate Conservatives’ have much to answer for in refusing to take hard and uncompromising stances on any number of issues. By refusing they allowed our society and culture to erode on many fronts by seeking to legislate/govern by allowing their empathy to be used as a lever to pry open all sorts of exceptions ….which quickly overran and overwhelmed the institutions… just as those who weaponized the goodwill of these saps intended.
Give every fucking cent back to the taxpayers.
How stupid do you have to be to even propose this never mind vote it into law.
Absolutely sickening. Homeless Texans waste away on the street while people who hopped the fence get their entire lives paid for.