Texas taxpayers received welcome news this week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the end of Texas’ decades-old policy granting in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants.1 The ruling leaves in place a federal district court’s 2025 decision striking down the law, concluding that it conflicted with federal statutes.
For more than twenty years, Texas allowed illegal immigrants who graduated from Texas high schools to qualify for the same in-state tuition rates as legal Texas residents and citizens. In many cases, those students paid substantially less than American citizens from other states attending the very same public universities.
That arrangement raised an obvious question: Why should Texans underwrite tuition for illegals while charging higher rates to American citizens simply because they live elsewhere? Why should taxpayers subsidize tuition for individuals who are in the country illegally in the first place?
The Fifth Circuit answered that question by reaffirming what federal law has long required. Under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, states may not provide residency-based higher education benefits to individuals unlawfully present in the United States unless those same benefits are made available to all U.S. citizens, regardless of where they reside. Because Texas did not extend those discounted rates to all American citizens, the court concluded the state law was invalid.
But the decision is about more than immigration policy.
Texas taxpayers already shoulder enormous financial burdens through property taxes, local debt, state taxes, and continued government spending. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility has consistently argued that elected officials should focus on reducing those burdens, not expanding taxpayer-funded benefits to those whose first action in our country was to break the law.
Texans deserve a government that puts citizens first. Not illegal immigrants.
That means controlling spending, eliminating waste, reducing property taxes, and ensuring “public benefits” (like in-state tuition rates) are for citizens who make those benefits possible in the first place.
The Fifth Circuit’s decision represents a victory not only for the rule of law, but for the principle that taxpayer-funded benefits should serve citizens. As Texas continues pursuing meaningful tax relief and greater fiscal discipline, that is exactly the kind of priority elected officials should embrace.
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- https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/25-10898/25-10898-2026-07-09.html ↩︎
