Texas Yanks Major Perk From Illegal Aliens - After Pioneering It 24 Years Ago
Texas Yanks Major Perk From Illegal Aliens - After Pioneering It 24 Years Ago
Twenty-four years after being the first in the nation to roll it out, a major perk for illegal aliens in Texas has vanished after the Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit to stop it and the Lone Star State's attorney general quickly agreed with the White House stance. Specifically, illegals will no longer be charged the in-state rate for college tuition.
The end came quite suddenly. Within hours of the US Department of Justice filing a complaint in the Northern District of Texas, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/Joint%20Motion%20for%20Entry%20of%20Consent%20Judgment.pdf
declaring that discounts favoring illegal aliens over non-Texan American citizens -- in contradiction of federal law -- violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, and permanently blocking Texas from giving such discounts.
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Paxton, who's mounting a 2026 https://www.texastribune.org/2025/04/08/ken-paxton-john-cornyn-us-senate-texas-republican-primary/
to represent Texas in the United States Senate, raced to take credit for the outcome:
“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. Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas.”
In 2001, Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition to illegals. Back then, Democrats had a slim majority in the state House, but the "Texas Dream Act" had bipartisan support, with https://youtu.be/4bA9m3IG99s?si=ASsGzYem9MuB1LCF&t=98
:
2011: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry says on a national debate stage if you don’t support discounted tuition for illegal aliens, you don’t have a heart.
2025: President Donald Trump’s DOJ sues Texas for giving discounted tuition to illegal aliens.
How far we’ve come! https://twitter.com/hashtag/txlege?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Brandon Waltens (@bwaltens) https://twitter.com/bwaltens/status/1930346581464666160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Since then, more than 20 other states created their own such rules. The tide is now clearly turning. In February, https://www.phelps.com/insights/florida-ends-in-state-tuition-benefits-for-undocumented-students.html
granting in-state tuition to illegals who attended a Florida high school for three consecutive years before graduating. A bill that would have repealed the practice made it out of a Texas Senate committee earlier this year, but didn't have enough strength to be brought to the full Senate vote. That's all moot now.
For the 2024-25 academic year, in-state tuition discount saved a student attending Texas A&M University in College Station https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/texas-am-university-college-station-10366/paying
, to take just two examples from the state's sprawling higher education system.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said US Attorney General Pam Bondi in a https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-texas-reach-agreement-end-state-tuition-illegal-aliens
. “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.”
While the rules vary depending on the student's exact circumstances and status under https://www.usa.gov/daca
the most freewheeling states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
So, Ms. Bondi -- who's next?
https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden
Sat, 06/07/2025 - 19:15
