Judge Blocks Migrants From Getting Texas In-State Tuition (3)

Texas no longer can offer undocumented immigrants lower tuition to attend state schools than US citizens who live outside Texas, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, after Texas signaled it wouldn’t defend a lawsuit the Trump administration filed earlier in the day.

Texas agreed with the administration that the migrant tuition model the state has used for 24 years is unconstitutional, jointly requesting a permanent injunction.

Judge Reed O’Connor of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the injunction on the grounds the lower tuition rates violate federal Supremacy Clause that leaves immigration policies up to the federal government.

The state law is invalid “as applied to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States,” said O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in a statement said, “ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas.”

The lawsuit came two days after Texas lawmakers ended their biennial legislative session without passing a bill filed that would’ve required an applicant for in-state tuition to sign a statement declaring they are a citizen of the US. SB 1798, which was authored or co-authored by nine Senators, never got a floor vote.

The primary author, Sen. Mayes Middleton (R), wrote, “I’m glad to see this lawsuit,” in a post on X before the injunction.

Middleton, the lone declared candidate to succeed Paxton as attorney general, continued, “I hope the state settles this lawsuit, and as part of the settlement, agrees to finally end subsidized in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.”

The tuition model Texas has used since 2001 “is squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law,” the lawsuit alleges, because it gives a postsecondary education benefit to a noncitizen that isn’t available to citizens.

The case is USA v. Texas, N.D. Tex., No. 7:25-cv-00055, 6/4/25.