Last week, The U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Texas over the Texas Dream Act, which allowed undocumented students to receive in-state tuition and lower tuition rates at public universities.
The Trump Administration initiated the lawsuit and Jasper Scherer, politics reporter for the Texas Tribune, said Texas is in agreement.
“But what’s unusual is that Texas very quickly agreed with the Trump administration,” he said. “Basically filed a joint motion with the feds saying, ‘yes, let’s go ahead and strike down our own state law.’”
Now, students represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund are asking the U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to allow them to join the lawsuit and defend the statute.
The Texas Legislature chose not to repeal the law, but it was blocked by Judge O’Connor.
“So kind of an interesting incursion by the judicial branch into the legislative branch,” Scherer said. “The Legislature declined to repeal this in-state tuition law, so Texas is kind of doing an end-around to try to get rid of it via the courts.”
Undocumented students will now face paying out-of-state tuition rates and do not qualify for federal financial aid.
Hear more stories from the week in Texas Politics in the audio player above.
