Trump Justice Department Challenges Texas Law Allowing Eligible Undocumented Students to Pay Providing In-State Tuition
Photo from U.S. Department of Justice website
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that
“The United States is challenging two decades-old Texas laws providing in-state tuition for illegal aliens. These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens, who are not afforded the same privileges, in direct conflict with federal law. On Wednesday, June 4, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in the Northern District of Texas against the State of Texas and many Texas officials seeking to enjoin the officials from enforcing the Texas laws and bring them into compliance with federal requirements.
In the complaint, the United States seeks to enjoin enforcement of Texas laws that require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates for all aliens who maintain Texas residency, regardless of whether those aliens are lawfully present in the United States. Federal law prohibits institutions of higher education from providing benefits to aliens that are not offered to U.S. citizens. The Texas laws blatantly conflict with federal law and are thus in conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
`Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,’ said Attorney General Bondi. `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.’
This lawsuit follows two executive orders recently signed by President Trump that seek to ensure illegal aliens are not obtaining taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment. The first, `Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders‘ orders all agencies to `ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.’ The second, `Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens,’ directs relevant officials to `take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.’
View the complaint here.”
Several states have laws that allow eligible undocumented immigrants to pay resident tuition. Other states do not.
The lawsuit already has had consequences. The Texas Tribune reports that “[u]ndocumented students in Texas are no longer eligible for in-state tuition after Texas agreed . . . with the federal government’s demand to stop the practice.
The abrupt end to Texas’ 24-year-old law came hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Texas over its policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower tuition rates at public universities. Texas quickly asked the court to side with the feds and find that the law was unconstitutional and should be blocked, which U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor did.”
The state’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Ken Paxson, haled his role in putting a stop to the Texas law that allowed undocumented immigrants to pay resident fees.
KJ