A group of students represented by a Latino civil rights advocacy group filed a motion on Wednesday seeking to intervene in the lawsuit that terminated in-state tuition rates for students without legal status in Texas last week.
Under the 2001 Texas Dream Act, students who were not citizens or permanent residents were eligible for in-state tuition rates if they had lived in Texas for three years prior to high school graduation and signed an affidavit stating their intent to apply for legal status as soon as they could.
After the U.S. Justice Department sued the state on June 4, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the suit, calling the Texas Dream Act “discriminatory and un-American” in a statement. A North Texas district court found the law unconstitutional under a 1996 federal law restricting residency-based tuition benefits for students without legal status.
Students for Affordable Tuition are represented by attorneys from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, who argued that the end of the Texas Dream Act was an “unprecedented attempt” through executive and state power, preventing a chance for public consideration or input, according to the motion. The federal court must decide whether to grant the motion to intervene before the students can join the lawsuit.
“What happened last week – the invalidation of longstanding state law in the course of one afternoon – was an abuse of our judicial system; those affected by the attempted invalidation have the right to be heard on the legality of the Texas Dream Act,” said Thomas Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel in a statement.
Some students represented in the motion could face tuition increases from $50 to $455 per semester credit hour, or more than nine times the current rate, according to the motion. At UT, in-state tuition during the 2023-24 academic year was $11,678 per year, while out-of-state tuition was $42,778 per year, according to U.S. News & World Report.
“Without affordable reduced tuition rates, SAT members may be forced to drop out of college or be unable to start their education at all,” the motion stated. “This hardship is not speculative — it is a direct result of eliminating reduced tuition rates for students without lawful immigration status.”
There were 57,000 undocumented students in Texas, according to a 2022 report from the American Immigration Council, but there is no specific data on undocumented student enrollment available for UT. An economic analysis conducted by the organization suggested Texas could lose up to $461 million each year due to lost wages and spending power if the Texas Dream Act were rescinded.
The University did not have any information to share regarding the timeline for compliance and whether it would issue guidance for students who would be directly impacted by the ruling.
