August 4, 2025
Texas Ended In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants. Students Are Already Feeling the Impact.
By Nic Wong
“The message is loud and clear: You’re good enough to pick vegetables or clean hotel rooms, but not to go to college.”
Until June, Texas was one of the best states in the country when it came to offering in-state tuition to undocumented students. But after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state, officials quietly ended the policy.
The suit claimed that Texas violated a 1996 federal law that prohibits undocumented students from receiving residency-based tuition benefits unless those benefits are also extended to all US citizens—regardless of where they live. Rather than fight the lawsuit, Texas officials capitulated almost immediately. “They only deliberated for 30 minutes, and then they settled,” said Abraham Espinosa, director of access to higher education at FIEL Houston, an immigrant and civil rights organization in Texas with programs supporting undocumented students.
The policy, originally passed in 2001 as House Bill 1403, had allowed undocumented students who lived in Texas and graduated from a Texas high school to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Known informally as the Texas Dream Act, it opened the doors to higher education for tens of thousands of young people who had grown up in the state but were barred from federal financial aid and most scholarships.
