Hearing Denied Over Texas Law That Gave Illegal Immigrants In-State Tuition

By Jessica Priest / The Texas Tribune

AUSTIN, TX — A federal appeals court denied an advocacy group’s request Tuesday for a new hearing in its effort to defend the Texas Dream Act, which allowed illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

This summer, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled advocacy groups, Austin Community College and a student seeking to restore the state law could not step into the case to defend the Texas Dream Act because federal law bars states from giving undocumented students a tuition benefit based on residency unless the same benefit is available to all U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live.

Texas’ law allowed students who graduated from a Texas high school or earned an equivalent diploma in the state, lived in Texas and pledged to seek permanent residency when eligible to pay in-state tuition, even if they did not have legal immigration status.

La Unión del Pueblo Entero, one of the groups in the case, filed a petition in August asking the entire 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the ruling and allow LUPE and others to defend the Texas law. However, the court denied their petition in early September.

“As college students prepare to start school this week across the state, we are thinking about all of those who are having to put their dream of a higher education on hold because of the financial hurdles resulting from the repeal of the Texas Dream Act,” Luis Castillo Vela, LUPE’s director of communications, said in a statement earlier this summer.

After the 2-1 ruling came down in July, Gov. Greg Abbott praised the decision on X, saying Texas and the Trump administration’s Justice Department “just secured another major victory for the rule of law.”

Officials from LUPE and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund called the previous ruling a disappointment. The organizations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the court’s denial of a rehearing.

“Education is a human right, no matter someone’s immigration status or background,” said Tania Chavez Camacho, LUPE’s president and executive director.

Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, said the panel majority was “now complicit in one of the greatest juridical travesties in recent history,” referring to the swift end of the Texas Dream Act after Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office and the Trump administration agreed the law should be blocked.

Austin Community College said in a previous statement that it “remains focused on supporting all students and the community we serve” and would follow the law while continuing its mission to provide “accessible, high-quality education and opportunities for all.”

Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote the majority opinion for the 5th Circuit Court, joined by Judge Don Willett. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez dissented.

Smith was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Willett by President Donald Trump, and Ramirez by President Joe Biden.