The First Graduates Without The Texas Dream Act

For 24 years, undocumented students who grew up in Texas paid in-state tuition at Texas public universities. The Class of 2026 is the first to cross the graduation stage after the law that helped fund their first three years was killed before they could finish.

Commencement weekend at the University of Texas at Austin starts on May 9. Texas A&M’s Aggie Ring ceremonies and graduations run through mid-May. Texas State, Texas Tech, the University of Houston, and dozens of community colleges follow over the next two weeks.

On June 4, 2025, federal Judge Reed O’Connor signed an order striking down two provisions of the Texas Education Code. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit that morning. AG waived service and co-filed a joint motion with the DOJ the same day.  The court entered final judgment within roughly six hours of the complaint.

Three weeks later, NBC News obtained audio of Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli at a private Republican Attorneys General Association meeting. “So just yesterday, we had filed a lawsuit against Texas, had a consent decree the same day, or consent judgment, and it got granted hours later,” Kambli told participants, according to audio obtained by NBC News. “And what it did was, because we were able to have that line of communication and talk in advance, a statute that’s been a problem for the state for 24 years, we got rid of it in six hours.”

The 89th Texas Legislature adjourned sine die on June 2, 2025. Lawmakers had filed at least nine separate bills that session to repeal the Texas Dream Act. The furthest it got was Senate Bill 1798 by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston. The Senate K-16 Education Committee voted it out 9 to 2 on May 6, 2025, the first time a repeal bill had cleared committee in a decade. But it never reached the Senate floor. House Bill 232 by Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, died in the House Higher Education Committee.

The DOJ filed its complaint 48 hours after the session ended. The case landed in the Wichita Falls Division of the Northern District of Texas with Judge O’Connor. In 2018 he ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional in its entirety.

In 2001, 63 House Republicans voted yes, according to the Texas State Historical Association. Then Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill on June 16, 2001. In a 2011 GOP primary debate he had defended the same law: “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they have been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart.” 24 years later, Perry told KXAN his view had changed and blamed Biden's border record.

What the law actually said

The Department of Justice argued that the Texas Dream Act gave undocumented students a residency-based benefit that out-of-state U.S. citizens couldn't access. The DOJ argued that federal statute 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a) bars that result.

However, the Texas law is unique. Eligibility required graduation from a Texas public or private high school or a Texas GED, residence in Texas for the 36 months before graduation, and a signed sworn statement to apply for permanent residency at the earliest opportunity.

That distinction is at the center of an appeal now before the Fifth Circuit. The intervenors brief puts it plainly: the Dream Act “does not make in-state tuition available ‘on the basis of residence,’ in-state tuition is not a ‘postsecondary education benefit,’ and the Dream Act makes available the same” benefit to citizens.

The appeal that will not reach the Class of 2026

Students for Affordable Tuition, represented by MALDEF, filed the first motion to intervene on June 11, 2025. La Unión del Pueblo Entero, the Austin Community College Board of Trustees, and University of North Texas graduate student Oscar Silva filed a separate motion on June 24, 2025. Judge O’Connor denied all motions to intervene.

ACC's Board of Trustees is the only Texas public college to formally intervene. Board Chair Sean Hassan said in a statement: “If legislation or court decisions will impact our ability to meet these expectations, we should have a seat at the table to help shape responsible solutions.”

The new rules and the missing definition

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted new rules. They took effect November 2025 and codified a new requirement: every applicant for in-state tuition must prove “lawful presence” in the United States.

However, Federal immigration law does not define “lawful presence.” Only “unlawful presence” appears in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Each public school now appoints a Resident Status Determination Official. Students reclassified as nonresidents must repay the difference within 30 days.

The cost

A senior at the University of Texas at Austin pays $11,688 in tuition and fees for the 2025-26 academic year as a Texas resident. As a nonresident, the same student pays $44,908. The annual difference is $33,220. At Texas A&M University, the resident rate is $12,928. The nonresident rate is $40,157. At Texas A&M-San Antonio, in-state is $8,032 and out-of-state is $18,878.

The American Immigration Council estimates the repeal will cost Texas $461 million a year in economic activity, $244.4 million in lost wages and $216.9 million in lost spending power. 

A Migration Policy Institute fact sheet published in February 2026 counts about 12,000 undocumented students graduating from Texas high schools every year, about 16 percent of the national total. The Higher Ed Immigration Portal counts 73,379 undocumented students enrolled across Texas higher education.

What is happening on campus

A UT Austin senior identified by KUT only as Mariel told the station her annual family income is about $40,000. Her tuition rose from $11,000 with financial aid to $22,500 without it. Her family took out a $15,000 loan from a family friend. Her mother took on a third job cleaning offices. Mariel dropped her planned second major in Spanish and is finishing her biology degree by taking eight classes in one semester.

“That was the one thing that I felt like I had, [it] was my education,” Mariel told KUT. “That’s the one thing I thought I had that would never be taken away from me,”

The advocacy group SEAT and Texas Students for DEI launched the Keeping the Texas Dream Fund in July 2025. Twenty-three students applied and the fund supported twelve. It raised $20,717 from more than 150 donors before closing. Some applicants who did not receive aid withdrew from school. At UT Austin, a student-run collective called Rooted has raised more than $12,000 for peers.

For students walking the stage between May 9 and Memorial Day weekend, the Fifth Circuit's oral argument on June 4 and any ruling that follows will arrive too late for the year they already paid as a nonresident.