Senate panel advances bill that would no longer allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition

A bill that would make college less affordable for undocumented students, including those who have called the state their home for most of their lives, is advancing in the Texas Senate.

The Senate’s K-16 committee voted 9-2 on Tuesday to bring Senate Bill 1798 to the chamber’s floor for a full vote. It would eliminate undocumented students’ eligibility for in-state tuition and require those previously deemed eligible to pay the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton, who authored the bill, said taxpayers are subsidizing higher education for people in the country illegally, which he estimated cost $150 million in the 2024-2025 academic year.

“These are funds that could have been used for lawful residents, perhaps even to lower tuition and fees,” Middleton said during an April 22 Senate education hearing when the bill was discussed.

The House is contemplating similar legislation. House Bill 232 by state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, would require students 18 or older to provide proof that they had applied to become a permanent U.S. resident to be eligible for in-state tuition.

Both bills would also make the students liable for covering the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition should their school determine they had been misclassified or if their application for permanent residency in the U.S. is denied.

The Senate’s measure would go further by allowing universities to withhold a student’s diploma if they don’t pay the difference within 30 days of being notified and if the diploma has not already been granted.

The Senate bill also bars universities and colleges from using any state money on financial aid to help undocumented students, requires them to report students whom they believe have misrepresented their immigration status to the Attorney General’s Office, and ties their state funding to compliance with the law.

Groups that advocate for more restrictions on immigration have expressed support for the Senate’s bill.

“This dismantles one of the many incentive structures that help drive illegal immigration into our state. Certainly not the biggest incentive structure, but one of a plethora,” said Texans for Strong Borders president Chris Russo, who has connections to a white supremacist movement.

Many undocumented students spoke for hours in opposition to both the Senate and the House bills during testimony before lawmakers in recent weeks. They said investing in them has paid dividends for Texas.

Emiliano Valencia, who was brought to the U.S. when he was 2 years old, said paying in-state tuition and working as a bank teller made it possible for him to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance, start a restaurant and later a construction company in the state.

“Altogether, I’ve created over a hundred jobs,” he said. “I’m not an American by paper, but I am in my heart and in my work ethic.”

Out-of-state tuition is typically three times more expensive than in-state tuition.

In 2001, Texas became the first state to extend in-state tuition and grant eligibility to undocumented students. Twenty-three states now offer it, too, although Florida recently repealed its law.

As it stands, Texas law allows undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition if they have lived in the state for three years before graduating from high school and for a year before enrolling in college. They must also sign an affidavit stating they will apply for legal resident status as soon as they can.

These so-called “affidavit students” accounted for only 1.5% of all students enrolled at Texas universities in 2023, said Luis Figueroa, chief of legislative affairs at the liberal think tank Every Texan.

Each new graduating class of “affidavit students” generates $461.3 million to the Texas economy per year, according to the American Immigration Council.

While efforts to eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students have failed in the Texas Legislature in the past, these bills are concerning because they come at a time when the federal administration has made immigrants public enemy No. 1, said Faye Kolly with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Kolly submitted written testimony opposing the House’s version of the bill. While it doesn’t explicitly eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students like the Senate’s version does, both bills would have that effect.

“Just because it gives a glimmer of hope doesn’t mean a vast majority of students are going to be able to meet that criteria,” she said.

Kolly said she included in her written testimony her assessment of a recent executive order from President Donald Trump.

Trump ordered “the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and appropriate agency heads,” to “identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of state and local laws, regulations, policies and practices favoring aliens of any groups of American citizens.” Trump said this included state laws that provide in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Kolly thinks the 2001 Texas Dream Act does not conflict with federal law because it is tied to students’ residency, not their legal immigration status.

“Everyone in Texas qualifies under the same pathway for in-state tuition, and so there isn’t any discrimination against U.S. citizens, and oddly this bill, if it passes, because it does single out people based on their immigration status, might violate federal law,” she said.

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