Texas let undocumented young people qualify for in-state college tuition for 24 years.
President Donald Trump convinced the state to unravel the policy in a matter of hours.
Since returning to the White House, Trump’s Justice Department has launched legal challenges against laws in Texas, Kentucky and Minnesota that allow undocumented students to pay the tuition rate reserved for state residents. That price can often be half of what out-of-state students are responsible for.
Discounting tuition for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children has a long bipartisan history. Texas’ law was signed by Republican then-Gov. Rick Perry and 23 red and blue states, plus the District of Columbia, followed, a political mood that’s now reversing: Florida repealed its 2014 in-state tuition law this February.
There are about 408,000 undocumented students representing less than 2 percent of those in college. The Justice Department argues these tuition laws unfairly offer a benefit to foreigners that is unavailable to U.S. citizens and legal residents living in a neighboring state.
The legal offensive to roll back these laws, which is poised to spread, serves as another sign of how thoroughly the second Trump administration is going about enacting the president’s promise to discourage illegal immigration and promote “self-deportation.”
“This was something that used to not be political,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said of the in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. “It was the idea that if this is the only country you’ve ever known, that more than likely you will be here your entire life, and we should want you to be educated and productive.”
But Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, Russell Coleman, sided with Trump this summer, urging the state’s council on postsecondary education to “withdraw its regulation rather than litigate what I believe will be, and should be, a losing fight.” Texas, the first state the DOJ targeted with a lawsuit this year, ended its policy in coordination with the White House.
The maneuver came after Attorney General Ken Paxton entered into a joint motion with the Justice Department, agreeing that providing in-state tuition to undocumented students wasn’t constitutional.
“In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wrote in a post on X last month.
The policies are crumbling at a time when college enrollment — and the tuition dollars it brings in — fell about 15 percent between 2010 and 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ most recent report.
The math is also looking complicated for many schools because the State Department could impose restrictions on international student enrollment, and there is an overall decline in the number of high school seniors.
But the Trump administration said states have created laws that favor undocumented students over U.S. citizens.
“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement to POLITICO. “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 119,000 undocumented students are protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, which spurred in-state tuition laws for these students and received bipartisan support for years. Now, many Republicans are turning against such policies.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) introduced the Florida bill in December that eventually ended the tuition break while serving in the state Legislature. He said the laws Trump is challenging amount to incentives for immigrants to cross the border.
“It’s immoral to give in-state tuition to someone who shouldn’t even be in America,” Fine said in an interview. “Think about it. A Georgian who wants to go to Florida State is paying more to go to a Florida institution than a foreigner. It’s just not right to do and that’s why we cleaned it up in Florida. It’s time for illegals to go home.”
The Florida repeal took effect in July, prompting concern from education advocates who say the legislation could result in Florida institutions losing nearly $15 million in tuition and fees from potential drops in enrollment.
In Texas, advocates say more than $461 million annually is at stake.
“What I know for certain is that a significant number of students are living with anxiety,” said Manuel Gonzalez, vice chair of the Austin Community College Board of Trustees, which is suing over Trump’s challenge against Texas. “Not just about how they’re going to afford college, but how are they going to navigate an increasingly more hostile political climate that often vilifies their existence.”
The National Immigration Law Center, alongside a host of organizations including the ACLU of Texas and Democracy Forward, are seeking to defend the Texas policy, challenging both the outcome and the process that led the state to gut its law.
Education advocates argue that making college more expensive is hardly a deterrent for undocumented immigrants looking for a better life for their families.
“Nobody from Guatemala or Mexico starts googling and thinking, ‘What state should I move to so that after my child finishes their education, they’ll be able to get in-state tuition to a college?’” said Gaby Pacheco, president of The Dream.US, which advocates for DACA students’ college education.
The policies remain alive in more than 20 states, including California, New York, Kentucky and Minnesota, but opposition from Republicans is rising.
A bill to block “undocumented noncitizens” from accessing Minnesota’s North Star Promise program, which makes college tuition free for state residents whose families make less than $80,000 a year, moved through the statehouse during the previous legislative session.
Roughly 500 students a year qualify for in-state tuition in Minnesota under the state’s Dream Act.
The Trump administration’s challenges stem from the president’s April executive order that directed agencies to crack down on policies that benefit undocumented people and deemed in-state tuition laws illegal. On Wednesday, the Education Department announced five new probes into University of Louisville, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Miami, University of Michigan and Western Michigan University, arguing that their scholarships for undocumented students are discriminatory.
If Kentucky and Minnesota fold alongside Texas, other states could be vulnerable to the administration’s efforts, immigration experts fear.
“Just as Texas was the first state to pass a Dream Act in 2001, later inspiring 23 other states and the District of Columbia to pass similar laws, this wrongful and undemocratic repeal of the law is now being pushed as a blueprint to undemocratically end in-state tuition, militarize college campuses and persecute students in other states,” Juan Jose Martinez-Guevara, Texas advocacy manager of the nonprofit United We Dream, said at a Tuesday press conference.
Immigration advocates say there is supposed to be a legal carveout specifically for DACA students that allows them to pay in-state tuition rates, but confusion over the law has some Texas colleges charging those students the out-of-state rates. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment on whether DACA students should be considered exempt.
The number of DACA students is dwindling — both because of the program’s 2007 arrival cutoff and legal challenges from the first Trump administration and others seeking to end it — but the president’s actions could have long-lasting consequences, political analysts say.
Trump’s legal challenges contradict earlier promises to “work with the Democrats on a plan” — as he noted in December — for Dreamers.
That dissonance might cost Republicans some of the votes Trump received in 2024, particularly from independents and Hispanic Americans, said Brendan Steinhauser, an Austin-based political consultant who’s worked with Texas Republicans such as Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
“He definitely did really, really well with Hispanic Americans, especially in South Texas and other places,” Steinhauser said. “But he’s not running for reelection. So, he may just think, well, it doesn’t matter what his approval numbers are.”
Steinhauser also insisted the president’s legal challenges are in line with his larger crackdown on immigration.
“It’s symbolic, yes, but it’s all real,” he said. “And it’s having an impact, I believe, in the same way that these raids are having an impact on incentives.”
Elena Schneider contributed to this report.