Attorney General Ken Paxton has made headlines by successfully challenging a law that provided in-state tuition fees for illegal immigrants. According to a release from Paxton's office, the law was deemed unconstitutional as it delivered benefits to non-citizens that were not available to American citizens not residing in Texas. The district court ruled in favor of the Attorney General's stance, putting an end to a policy that had long been under scrutiny.
In a joint motion with the Trump Administration, Paxton took to the courts to argue against the measure. “Today, I entered a joint motion along with the Trump Administration opposing a law that unconstitutionally and unlawfully gave benefits to illegal aliens that were not available to American citizens,” Paxton said, pinpointing the inequity faced by out-of-state U.S. citizens who could not access the same tuition rates as undocumented students living in Texas.
This decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas didn't come lightly. It confronted a contentious issue at the crossroads of immigration policy and education equity. For more details, Paxton's office has made the motion and the final judgment validating their victory available online.
The court's final judgment, as shared by the Attorney General's his team, explicitly states that federal law was in direct conflict with the Texas education law. It formally recognized the inconsistency of allowing undocumented aliens to qualify for in-state tuition while denying U.S. citizens not qualifying as Texas residents the same benefit.
