By Isabella Torregiani
2:55am PDT, Jun 6, 2025
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A Texas state law that allowed undocumented students to pay a significantly lower tuition rate than out-of-state students has been blocked by a federal judge.
On Wednesday, June 4, District Judge
Reed O'Connor ruled in favor of
President Donald Trump, declaring the more than two-decade-old law unconstitutional.
Keep reading to get more details on the decision…MORE:
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a joint motion with the U.S. Department of Justice asking the court to overturn a section of the Texas Education Code.
The filing argued that the state law "expressly and directly conflicts" with federal immigration law and should be deemed "unconstitutional and invalid."
Originally passed in 2001, the law allowed undocumented students to qualify for lower tuition if they'd lived in Texas for at least three years prior to high school graduation and committed to pursuing permanent legal status.
District Judge Reed O'Connor concluded, "The 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."
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The ruling marks a legal victory for President Donald Trump.
Before Ken Paxton joined the lawsuit, 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 read. "This Court should put that to an end."
Following the ruling, Republican Texas Governor
Greg Abbott shared the news on
social media, writing, "In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended."
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The latest ruling out of Texas has sparked backlash from Democrats. State Representative
Ramon Romero expressed his disappointment over the decision: "It is shameful that the Trump Administration's Department of Justice is attacking Texas students who grew up in Texas, graduated from high school in Texas, and call this state home," he wrote, adding that "targeting them does nothing to make our country stronger."
According to findings from President Donald Trump's
Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, roughly 57,000 undocumented students were enrolled in Texas colleges and universities in 2022.
