MAGA's Education Cruelity Is the Point: Texas undocumented students can’t access in-state tuition this fall for the first time in more than two decades.
S. E. Anderson
Texas Undocumented Students Start the Semester Without In-State Tuition
After a court struck down the Texas Dream Act, thousands of undocumented students are left asking how—or if—they can finish their degrees.
8 September 2025
Texas undocumented students can’t access in-state tuition this fall for the first time in more than two decades.
When the Department of Justice sued Texas over the Texas Dream Act in June, Jose, a rising junior at the University of Houston, worried that his future was about to be derailed. In a matter of hours, Texas sided with the federal government and a court order killed the law that granted in-state tuition to Jose and other undocumented students at the state’s public colleges and universities.
The move left him with a hard choice: drop out, because he could no longer afford tuition, or transfer to a private institution that could offer financial help. It was only a few months before the start of the fall semester. He decided to take a pause and transfer in the spring.
Jose, who asked to be referred to by his first name, considers himself “one of the lucky ones.” He has a scholarship from TheDream.US, an organization that provides support for undocumented students. TheDream.US will help him and other awardees transfer to private partner institutions, but Jose is concerned the policy change means “an indefinite pause” to higher education for his undocumented classmates who don’t have scholarships.
He’s also dismayed he won’t be able to graduate from the University of Houston as planned, he said. He’s waiting for guidance from TheDream.US and doesn’t yet know where he’ll enroll in the spring.
“That wasn’t my choice,” Jose said. “It’s kind of a disappointment that I won’t be able to graduate from this institution [where] I’ve given so much, and at the same time, they’ve given me so much.”
As the fall semester starts, thousands of undocumented students in Texas and their institutions are confronted with the demise of the Texas Dream Act and the task of adhering to the new court order. The 24-year-old law previously allowed undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they met several criteria, including graduating from a Texas high school, residing in Texas for at least three years prior and signing an affidavit promising to apply for permanent residency status.
Now public colleges and universities are rushing to comply with the court order, reclassifying undocumented students as nonresidents and notifying them of tuition increases. But students and their advocates say each institution is approaching these processes differently, adding to students’ fear and confusion. Meanwhile, students are left with difficult decisions to make about how or if to continue their studies—at triple the price in some cases.
‘My Worst Nightmare’
An undocumented senior at Texas A&M University told Inside Higher Ed that the university was planning to charge them an international student rate, thousands of dollars higher than in-state tuition.
The student, a senior with only eight credits left to graduate, described the end of the Texas Dream Act as their “worst nightmare.” They were sure they’d have to drop out before reaching the end of a long and winding educational path that included a multiyear pause between graduating from community college and starting classes at Texas A&M after two devastating rejections from the DACA program.
When news of the successful DOJ lawsuit first broke, “I just burst in tears,” the student, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “I was freaking out.”
Fortunately, they won a competitive scholarship—one of the few remaining ways for nonresidents to secure in-state tuition in the state—and are now two weeks into their final semester. Texas allows in-state tuition benefits for nonresident students who earn at least a $1,000 competitive scholarship from a Texas public college or university as a way for the state to attract talent.
The student said they’re relieved to be able to continue at Texas A&M, but the uncertainty has taken a toll on them and other undocumented students.
“I just don’t think that anyone deserves to live with that type of fear, like whether you’re going to finish your education or not,” they said. “I didn’t know I was going to graduate. Thank goodness, I am. It’s a blessing. But a lot of students like me—we shouldn’t be in this position. We shouldn’t have to fight to receive an education.”
Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, said many students have reduced their course loads or taken a pause because they can’t afford the higher tuition rates and have had little time to explore other options. Her organization is trying to establish partnerships with online and private universities where students could transfer and their scholarship dollars will go further, but those options won’t be available until the spring.
“There’s been a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of people have just kind of missed the train to be able to take classes this semester,” Pacheco said.
A Scramble for Institutions
Adding to students’ anxieties is the speed at which institutions had to implement the June court order—and the patchwork nature of how they’re going about it, Pacheco said.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees the state’s colleges and universities, sent a June 18 memo directing colleges to determine which students must now pay higher tuition rates under the court order. The state agency offered no further guidance, leaving the institutions to decide how to identify these students. The board also didn’t require institutions to report the results, according to a message from the coordinating board to Inside Higher Ed.
A July memo from the coordinating board required eligible noncitizen students to submit a revised affidavit to prove their eligibility for in-state tuition. Instead of promising to apply for permanent residency, they now need to attest that they can “demonstrate to the institution” that they are “lawfully present in the United States.”
The THECB didn’t specify what proof is required to show lawful residence, again leaving institutions to interpret the policy. The THECB is now undergoing a rule-making process to ensure its regulations align with the court decision.
In the meantime, institutions’ general counsels are “interpreting things very differently” from one another, with some more “risk averse” than others, Pacheco said.
For example, The Texas Tribune reported instances where students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, were given mixed messages about their tuition rates or charged higher tuition, while some institutions have explicitly stated DACA recipients remain eligible for in-state tuition. Institutions are also categorizing undocumented students in different ways, as international students in some cases, and in others as out-of-state or out-of-district students.
Categorizing Dreamers as international students harks back to how universities classified them in the early 2000s, according to Pacheco. It feels like “we’re going backwards,” she said. “This creates a lot of chaos, and there’s no one-way system.”
Meanwhile, the process to verify students’ legal residency differs from college to college. Texas A&M directed students to prove their “lawful presence” by filing the same documents the Texas Department of Public Safety requires for a Real ID driver’s license. An FAQ from the University of Texas at Austin directs students to a questionnaire and suggests they submit various documents, including a U.S. passport, a Texas driver’s license or a current visa. But it warns doing so “does not guarantee that you will qualify for in-state tuition.”
Dallas College determines students’ residency statuses based on a questionnaire or their affidavits, according to the college’s website, and alerted them of any changes to their classifications in early August. According to a June planning session of the Dallas College Board of Trustees, around 1,700 students are likely affected—1,553 students received in-district tuition and 176 out-of-district tuition under the Texas Dream Act last year.
Austin Community College, meanwhile, is fighting the court decision. It appealed, alongside an activist group and a Texas undocumented student, after a judge denied its motion to intervene and reopen the case. (The college estimated in court filings that 440 students would see their tuition rates quadruple.)
“The ACC Board of Trustees remains committed to doing what’s best for our students and our community,” the community college district said in a statement. “We are working closely with legal counsel to fully understand what this means for the College and the students we serve. Our Trustees believe it is essential to understand how this development may affect our students, ACC, and the future workforce of our region.”
Other institutions are struggling to keep up with the process of reclassifying undocumented students. The University of Texas at Dallas, for example, noted on its website that its Residency Review Team is experiencing delays as it processes questionnaires submitted in recent weeks.
“Due to high response, our processing times have lengthened,” the site reads. “Please note that repeated submissions and multiple inquiries about submissions do not expedite or aid processing, and only add delays.”
Pacheco said institutions’ communication with students about their financial options has also been “really messy.” At the same time, she has sympathy for college leaders and employees tasked with implementing the court order.
One college employee recently called Pacheco in tears, she said, because “they are the ones having to share all this information with their students. They’re the ones having to bring the news to them, tell them their hands are tied when it’s not their decision.”
She said student advocates, like herself, are struggling with the situation as well.
“[We’re] still telling them an education is important and critical,” and yet “there are all these things that are happening that are making it so much harder for you to go to college,” she said.
“It’s a paradox. It’s really difficult for every one of us to still tell the students to be hopeful and keep moving forward when we ourselves don’t even have the answers right now of how they can do that.” ///
s. e. anderson
author of The Black Holocaust for Beginners
www.blackeducator.org
"If WORK was good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor." (Haiti)
--------------------------------------------