Texas has abruptly ended a 24-year-old law that allowed undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges, after President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice sued to block it and Texas chose not to fight back.
On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a one-page order striking down the Texas Dream Act just hours after the DOJ filed suit. State Attorney General Ken Paxton didn’t even bother to put up a fight. Instead, his office filed a joint motion with the Trump administration asking the court to permanently kill the law.
Republicans wasted no time taking a victory lap.
“In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared on social media late Wednesday.
That celebration is especially notable because the GOP-controlled state legislature could have repealed the law themselves during their just-ended session, but it didn’t. Instead, they let the courts do the dirty work.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas
It’s remarkable, if not ironic, that the Trump administration sued Texas over immigration policy at all, given that the red state has been one of Trump’s most reliable allies. But Paxton’s decision to roll over isn’t surprising. He’s locked in a high-stakes Senate primary and trying to prove he’s the most loyal MAGA candidate in the race.
“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” Paxton said.
The law in question—the Texas Dream Act—was signed into law in 2001 and made Texas the first state in the country to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students. It was championed by then-Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, who stood by it even during his 2012 presidential campaign. That tells you just how far right the GOP has drifted on immigration.
The crackdown is full steam ahead.
“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. “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.”
What Bondi doesn’t mention, though, is that Texas wasn’t exactly out on a limb. Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., offer in-state tuition to undocumented students. Nineteen of those states and D.C. go a step further by offering access to state financial aid too.
But now those policies are under attack.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi attend an event in the White House on May 21.
In April, Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending policies that “provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.” In Texas alone, tens of thousands of undocumented students are enrolled in colleges, many of whom have lived in the U.S. since childhood and graduated from American public schools.
The rollback isn’t just cruel—it’s costly. A recent economic analysis by the American Immigration Council, which advocates for immigrants, estimates that eliminating in-state tuition for undocumented students could cost Texas more than $461 million annually in lost wages and economic activity.
Texas isn’t alone. Florida recently passed legislation eliminating in-state tuition access for undocumented students.
And this isn’t just a red-state phenomenon. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is ending new enrollment for undocumented immigrants in the state’s Medi-Cal program starting in 2026. Indeed, both parties seem increasingly willing to target undocumented communities so long as they think it’ll score them political points.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s brutal immigration crackdown is creating tension even within the federal government, with agencies fighting over the logistics of carrying out raids. But discomfort isn’t stopping them. Undocumented immigrants are the scapegoat of choice in this administration, and there’s no sign that will change anytime soon.
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