“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam 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.”
Texas has agreed to end in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants.
According to CBS News, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas on Wednesday, saying that the state’s decision to grant in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants constitutes discrimination against out-of-state American students.
Shortly after the Justice Department announced its lawsuit, Tesas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a joint motion with Trump administration officials to end the tuition law.
CBS News notes that, despite its notoriously conservative politics, Texas in 2001 passed a law allowing certain undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates if they had been brought to the United States as children, provided that they meet all other residency criteria.
The Department of Justice, however, has said that such policies are unconstitutional.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam 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 legal filing states that, “[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.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since taken to social media to praise the move.
“In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended,” Abbott wrote in a Twitter post. “Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.”
Some education and immigrant advocacy organizations have already criticized the action, saying that it will prevent young people from obtaining the skills they need to obtain professional success.
“This policy has been instrumental in providing access to higher education for all Texas students, regardless of immigration status, and dismantling it would not only harm these students but also undermine the economic and social fabric of our state,” EdTrust – Houston assistant director Judith Cruz said in a statement.
Twenty-four other states, along with the District of Columbia, currently offer in-state tuition rates to certain undocumented immigrants. Florida had a similar law, too, but repealed it earlier this year.
Sources
Texas’ undocumented college students no longer qualify for in-state tuition
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