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A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort to defend the Texas Dream Act, leaving in place a ruling that ended a longstanding state law that allowed some undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said advocacy groups, Austin Community College and a student could not step into the case to defend the Texas Dream Act because federal law bars states from giving undocumented students a tuition benefit based on residency unless the same benefit is available to all U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live.

The law allowed students who graduated from a Texas high school or earned an equivalent diploma in the state, lived in Texas and pledged to seek permanent residency when eligible to pay in-state tuition, even if they did not have legal immigration status.

Gov. Greg Abbott praised the 2-1 ruling on X, saying Texas and the Trump administration’s Justice Department “just secured another major victory for the rule of law.”

La Unión del Pueblo Entero and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund called the ruling a disappointment.

“Education is a human right, no matter someone’s immigration status or background,” said Tania Chavez Camacho, LUPE’s president and executive director.

Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, which represents Students for Affordable Tuition, said the organization would seek further review in federal court after consulting with its clients.

Saenz said the panel majority was “now complicit in one of the greatest juridical travesties in recent history,” referring to the swift end of the Texas Dream Act after Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office and the Trump administration agreed the law should be blocked.

Austin Community College said in a statement that it “remains focused on supporting all students and the community we serve” and would follow the law while continuing its mission to provide “accessible, high-quality education and opportunities for all.”

Marco Julian Gonzalez, a University of Texas at Austin business student whose fraternity and sister sorority backed the students in court, said the ruling was disheartening.

“We know who these people are and we know who they are not, and when you have politicians go on the airwaves and call our friends criminal illegal aliens we take offense and that kept us motivated to keep going,” Gonzalez said.

Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote the majority opinion for the 5th Circuit Court, joined by Judge Don Willett. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez dissented.

Smith was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Willett by President Donald Trump, and Ramirez by President Joe Biden.

The background

Texas was the first state to let certain undocumented students pay in-state tuition when lawmakers passed the Texas Dream Act in 2001 with little debate and broad, bipartisan support.

The law, signed by the Republican former Gov. Rick Perry, allowed certain students without legal status to qualify if they graduated from a Texas high school or earned an equivalent diploma here, lived in the state for at least three years before graduating and signed an affidavit saying they would seek permanent residency as soon as they were eligible.

Supporters said Texas benefited from students educated in its K-12 schools by making college more affordable and moving them into the workforce. But as Republican politics shifted on immigration, the law became a target.

After multiple failed efforts from state lawmakers to change the law, U.S. Justice Department lawyers sued Texas last year. Paxton’s office quickly agreed the law conflicted with federal immigration law and asked a judge to block it. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved the agreement and blocked the law the same day.

Students for Affordable Tuition, La Unión del Pueblo Entero, Austin Community College and student Oscar Silva asked the court to let them defend the Texas Dream Act themselves.

Students for Affordable Tuition is a group of students who say they were harmed by the ruling. La Unión del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, is an immigrant-rights group. They asked to intervene along with Austin Community College and Silva, a University of North Texas graduate student who qualified for in-state tuition under the Texas Dream Act.

O’Connor, a President George W. Bush appointee who sits in the Northern District of Texas’ Wichita Falls division, rejected their request, so they appealed to the 5th Circuit.
What the students and immigrant advocates say

Advocacy groups Students for Affordable Tuition and LUPE, Austin Community College and Silva argued they have the legal right to intervene. They urged the court to apply a more lenient standard for intervention instead of requiring proof that their defense of the Texas Dream Act would ultimately succeed.

Students for Affordable Tuition said the stakes are concrete for its members, who “face significant increases in their higher education costs, putting college out of reach for many of them, some of whom have already spent years in college and will not be able to complete their specific program.”

“The people of Texas are entitled to genuine litigation before a federal court invalidates their democratically enacted statute,” lawyers said in a legal brief to the 5th Circuit.

Thomas Saenz, the lead lawyer for Students for Affordable Tuition, also stressed that affected students did not get due process because of how quickly the Texas Dream Act was overturned.

It is “important to emphasize here how extraordinary that it all occurred as quickly as it did,” Saenz told the 5th Circuit during oral arguments on June 4. “The court needs to look at whether this extraordinary situation violated due process rights held by students for affordable tuition and the other students who benefited or would benefit in the future.”

The groups believed the Texas Dream Act did not conflict with federal law because eligibility was not based solely on residency. Students also had to graduate from a Texas high school or earn an equivalent diploma here, live in the state for at least three years before graduating and sign an affidavit saying they would seek permanent residency as soon as they were eligible.

What the federal government says

Justice Department lawyers sued Texas, saying the Texas Dream Act violated a 1996 federal immigration law. That federal law says states cannot give people who are not lawfully present a higher education benefit unless U.S. citizens can get the same benefit, no matter where they live.

U.S. Department of Justice attorneys arguedvthat the Texas Dream Act so clearly conflicted with federal immigration law that allowing others to intervene and defend it would be futile.

“We opposed intervention … only on the grounds that it’s legally futile because the statutes are preempted,” Andrew Marshall Bernie, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, told the appeals court during oral arguments last month.

Responding to concerns over due process, Bernie argued courts are not constitutionally required to hear from outside groups when a state law is challenged for violating a federal statute. In the end, he said, the outside groups did get due process because their arguments have been heard by the trial court and the 5th Circuit.

Broader impact

The Texas Dream Act opened higher education to more than 57,000 students, lawyers for LUPE, ACC and Silva told the court. The end of the law could cost Texas hundreds of millions of dollars a year through reduced wages, earnings and consumer spending, lawyers for LUPE, ACC and Silva told the court. ACC said it expected lost revenue, administrative burdens and negative effects on programs and services if the ruling remains in place.

Since O’Connor blocked the Texas Dream Act last year, students and colleges across the state have faced confusion over who still qualifies for in-state tuition.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board told colleges to identify and reclassify students who are not lawfully present as nonresidents but did not provide clarity on how to do so. That uncertainty led at least one student with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to be initially charged out-of-state tuition, The Texas Tribune previously reported.

Students for Affordable Tuition told the 5th Circuit that several Texas colleges had charged DACA recipients out-of-state rates, even though Texas lawyers said they should still qualify for in-state tuition.

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

HOUSTON (AP) — Three men inside a van who witnessed the fatal shooting of the driver by an immigration officer in Houston said the Mexican man was shot through a passenger window and that the officer was never threatened, a lawyer who has spoken with them said Friday.

The shooting Tuesday during an attempted traffic stop by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Houston has revived critical voices deriding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and how ICE operates. Immigration arrests around the country recently surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released no evidence to support the officer’s story that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ignored their commands and rammed into an ICE vehicle with his white van, or that the officer fired in self-defense.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia has said the acting director of ICE told her officers thought someone in the van, but not Salgado Araujo, had a final order of removal but did not share a name.

The officers were not wearing body cameras and neither ICE nor DHS have released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene.
The men tell an attorney that the ICE story is untrue

Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he was driving his crew to a construction site. His family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.

ICE detained the other three men in the van and they all told a lawyer that no officer was in front of the van or even in danger.

“After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they’re saying is the truth. I know that these agents — the agency — is going to try to cover it up,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said during a news conference.

Images of the van after the shooting appear to show no damage, he said.

ICE has not released the names of the detained men, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them. Salgado Araujo’s brother was among those arrested.

Garcia said at the same news conference it was unsurprising that Salgado Araujo drove off when ICE tried to stop his vehicle, given that their vehicles were unmarked and had no lights.

“What would you do if you were being followed by someone and the cars were unmarked?” Garcia said.

Salgado Araujo was at least the eighth person to die during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. No immigration officers have been charged in the killings and video footage in several previous shootings has contradicted the accounts of federal officers.

The detained men say ICE is pressuring them to self-deport

ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport, which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, said Juana Degollado, who said her stepfather Daniel Tirado Pantoja is among the detained men. She said he has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record.

“It is extremely important that we preserve the integrity of this investigation,” Balderas-Ibarra said. “That will all be out the window if they are deported.”

DHS said allegations that the men have been pressured to leave the country are “categorically false.”

DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks earlier saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement.

“No one in that van had warrants or any legal problem,” Degollado told The Associated Press in a text message.
ICE refuses to release officer’s name or other information

DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.

DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.

Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo’s death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence, but the positions of the vehicles means surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, CEO Juan Proaño said.

Local prosecutors are talking to witnesses

Local prosecutors were not invited into the investigation by federal officials but have spent the past three days in the Houston neighborhood looking for surveillance footage and talking to witnesses, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.

Teare said anyone with video or other information must share it with his office so the truth about the shooting can be determined.

“We will go to the ends of the earth to collect all the evidence, so that we can eventually let the public know what happened,” Teare said.

The FBI is tightly controlling the evidence in the case, but Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he wants a local independent investigation and the police chief will meet with federal investigators next week to see what can be done.

“We recognize that it is a federal police agency that was out of control Tuesday morning,” Whitmire said.

Houston police do not work with ICE and the mayor said he found out about the shooting from the media.

Salgado Araujo’s family said they found out he was dead through the ICE statement instead of directly from the agency. Garcia said officers kept his belongings and sent him to the hospital where he died without including his name.

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Brook reported from New Orleans and Foley from Iowa City, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; Rebecca Santana in Washington; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed.

Both engines flamed out on a small business jet that crashed on a Texas highway in June, preventing the pilots from being able to reach a nearby airport, the National Transportation Safety Board said in an preliminary investigation report released Friday.

Pilots had looked for a field or other flat areas to land before the crash, but were told by air traffic controllers that there were none close by. The crash killed one person and injured six.

According to the report, the flight crew noticed an “unusual vibration” early in the flight that they had not experienced before. The plane had departed the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo on its way to Austin, and it was determined that they could proceed to their final destination after discussing it with staff at NetJets, the company that operated the jet.

As the jet approached the U.S.-Mexico border, the flight crew received a message indicating that the right fuel system had low fuel pressure, followed by more messages, and the crew declared an emergency.

The flight crew reported a generator failure and “multiple other failures” to Houston air traffic controllers, such as “fuel level low,” and requested to divert to Laredo International Airport, according to the report. The jet was cleared but while it was on its final approach, the right engine “flamed out,” followed by the left engine moments later.

Video footage showed “two instances of fire flaring up around the airplane as it was on final approach,” the report states.

A pilot asked the Laredo air traffic control tower if there was a field to their right, and an air traffic controller replied that there was not. After the pilot again asked about open area to their right, an air traffic controller replied, “It’s just going to be the main highway, and that’s just about it.”

The flight crew “maneuvered the airplane to touch down” on the highway about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) southeast of the airport. As the jet touched down, it “sheared off several light poles,” struck a vehicle and ended up straddling the edge of an overpass with the main cabin exit door facing up. The door was eventually opened and five people escaped.

The NTSB report also asserts that the jet’s right engine starter generator was “missing multiple screws from the outer housing.” Alan Diehl, a former NTSB investigator, said the jet’s problems likely stemmed from the missing screws and that the flight crew and air traffic controllers acted professionally with the information they had at the time.

“Sounds like the fuel lines, because of the vibration caused by the starter generator’s missing screws, initiated a whole series of cascading events that led to the emergency loss of power,” Diehl said.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB investigator, said signs point to an “airworthiness issue.”

“That might tie back to maintenance procedures from when that unit was overhauled or when the fuel system and fuel sensors were tested,” Guzzetti said.

The fiery crash in Laredo near the Mexican border had sent bystanders racing from their cars to help police rescue passengers and crew from the burning aircraft. Video from the scene showed someone trying to smash the cockpit glass with a sledgehammer, while others used makeshift levers as they worked to open the plane’s door. Local officials said a firefighter entered the smoke-filled jet to extract one person still inside after the rest had escaped.

The jet “sustained substantial damage” to its fuselage, both wings, and the tail, according to the NTSB report.

Two pilots and three teenagers survived the crash and were released from the hospital, according to the Laredo Police Department. A dog on board suffered smoke inhalation but was expected to survive, Jose Baeza, an investigator with the police department, said in June.

The crash killed Joshua Baer, a leader in Texas’ technology and startup sectors.

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the company that operated the jet. It is NetJets, not NetsJet.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Crews are again draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as President Donald Trump’s problem-plagued efforts to revamp the waterway pushes well past his initial goal of having it ready by July 4 to mark the nation’s 250th birthday.

The president at first suggested his renovations would last a century. But, within weeks of the project originally reaching completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.

Trump has blamed the peeling on vandals, though critics allege it’s from shoddy repair work.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency oversees the National Park Service, told conservative podcaster Katie Miller in an interview released earlier this week that the new round of draining was planned. He also said that the water might still contain debris from an extensive Independence Day fireworks display over the National Mall.

“Drain the water, clean up the fireworks stuff,” Burgum told Miller, who is the wife of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. “Repair the vandalism that was done. Fill it back up again.”

The work on the Reflecting Pool is just one of a number of projects Trump has spearheaded across the nation’s capital. Most prominently, he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a $400 million ballroom and plans to build a towering arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

He initially announced his intentions to beautify the Reflecting Pool this spring, saying he wanted it completed before the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations.

Water was drained and Trump directed that the bottom be painted what he called “American flag blue.” In May, the president posted on his social media site of the pool: “The goal is to have it done, at this higher level, prior to July 4th — We are ahead of schedule!”

But problems began quickly after the initial work was finished. Trump blamed vandals, and court documents later showed that the National Park Service reported to the U.S. Park Police a June 9 incident in which a sharp knife or razor cut the pool’s new liner.

On Thursday, former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn pleaded not guilty in D.C. Superior Court to deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn has said he reached inside the pool to examine the peeled sealant and let go of a chunk when he was told to by a park worker.

His attorneys and other Trump administration critics have derided the case as an abuse of prosecutorial power and maintain he is being scapegoated for the poor job done fixing up the Reflecting Pool.

At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the Reflecting Pool, according to online court records. All three pleaded not guilty during their initial court appearances Wednesday.

The pool was closed for the Independence Day celebration, which featured what Trump said was the largest fireworks display in the world. The president had said that the pool would have to be drained anew as part of the new round of repairs.

Burgum has also said that the Trump administration won’t seek bids for the new rounds of repairs. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend: “We’ll use the same company because they did a fantastic job.”

Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.

Democratic senators and House members are investigating the pool project, including seeking answers about how much taxpayer funding is involved.

HOUSTON (AP) — Federal officials are refusing to release the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop in Houston, and scrutiny of the shooting is growing after authorities said the man killed was not the person ICE was trying to find.

The shooting in Houston has revived critical voices deriding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and how ICE operates, especially after immigration arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a recent five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.

No evidence has emerged to support the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events that led to the killing early Tuesday of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — that he rammed an ICE vehicle when it was chasing his white van and that an officer opened fire in self-defense.

Three other men inside the van told an attorney that officers are lying about what happened and that Salgado Araujo did not ram an ICE vehicle but that he was shot through the passenger side window.

The officers were not wearing body cameras and neither ICE nor DHS, which oversees that agency, have released photos, videos or other evidence from the scene.

Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old homebuilder who was shot and killed as he drove his crew to a construction site, was not who ICE was looking for, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said. Salgado Araujo’s family said he had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed.

ICE detained the other three men in the van and a lawyer who said he has spoken to them said the version told by DHS is “completely false.”

“At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents lives ever in danger,” attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said on Instagram.

The other men detained by ICE included Salgado Araujo’s brother. ICE has not released their names, but family members said they have been able to briefly talk with them.

ICE is pressuring the men to self-deport which would make it harder for them to share their version of events with investigators or others, and Daniel Tirado Pantoja has no legal permission to live in the U.S. but has no criminal record, his stepdaughter said.

“We just told him not to sign anything, that we’re going to fight this case,” Juana Degollado told The Associated Press.

DHS said these allegations are “categorically false.”

When asked if officers were specifically targeting Salgado Araujo, DHS said Thursday that officers investigating a tip weeks before the shooting saw two white vans at the address of a target. While heading to that address Tuesday, officers saw a white van and someone inside who resembled the person they were looking for, the department said in a statement.

DHS said it will not release the officer’s name because they could face threats and violence and their family could be at risk.

DHS also has not responded to requests for other information, including how long the officer has worked for ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting is administrative leave. The department has taken a similar stance after previous fatal shootings involving its officers, unlike many local and state agencies that routinely identify and provide biographical details about officers involved in critical incidents.

Unlike some previous deaths involving federal immigration officers, few photos or videos surrounding the shooting have emerged publicly in the days since Salgado Araujo’s death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens offered a $5,000 reward for video or other evidence but the positions of the vehicles means surveillance cameras in the area were blocked from recording the shooting, Proaño said.

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EDGEWOOD – Following the discovery of a water line problem on Thursday, the City of Edgewood is instructing all citizens and businesses to restrict water use to necessities only. The city claims that while workers attempt to fix the water line problem and restore service, water is not being pumped. Until repairs are finished and regular water service is restored, all residents and businesses are hereby directed to limit water use to essential needs only,” the city declared.

“To help maintain available water supplies in the Water Tower and Water Storage Tanks, immediate conservation is required.” As the city entered stage 3 of water shortage conditions on July 2, it asked residents to minimize non-essential use and conserve water. When the total daily water demand reaches or surpasses 350,000 gallons in a single day or over five consecutive days, stage three of the water plan is initiated.