Federal judge declares Texas law granting illegal migrants in-state college tuition unconstitutional after state joins Trump in lawsuit

A federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked Texas from enforcing a state law allowing illegal immigrants living in the Lone Star State to pay in-state tuition rates for public universities after the Trump administration challenged the statute. The two-decades-old law was overturned after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas agreeing with the Justice Department’s contention that the statute “expressly and directly conflicts” with federal immigration law. “[T]he Court hereby declares that the challenged provisions … as applied to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States, violate the Supremacy Clause and are unconstitutional and invalid,” District Judge Reed O’Connor determined.  “The Court also hereby permanently enjoins Defendant as well as its successors, agents, and employees, from enforcing Texas Education Code § 54.051(m) and § 54.052(a), as applied to aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States,” O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W.Bush, ruled. After the ruling, Republican Texas Gov.

Greg Abbott declared on X that “In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended.” “Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” Paxton said in a statement. In a lawsuit filed shortly before Paxton entered the state’s joint motion in the case, the Trump administration argued that “federal law prohibits illegal aliens from getting in-state tuition benefits that are denied to out-of-state U.S.citizens.”“There are no exceptions.

Yet the State of Texas has ignored this law for years,” the lawsuit stated.“This Court should put that to an end.” The 2001 state law was passed by the Texas Legislature under the administration of former Republican Gov.

Rick Perry, who served as energy secretary during President Trump’s first term. The law, which survived several Repub...