North Texas college students' tuition doubles after reversal of Texas Dream Act
The reversal of the Texas Dream Act is leaving many undocumented university students in limbo at the beginning of this new semester.
Now, they must pay out-of-state tuition regardless of how long they've lived in Texas. It's doubled the cost for some and has forced others to withdraw.
"I had to do what I had to do, and I had to leave," said a former UNT Dallas student named Sienna. She said her parents brought her to Texas when she was 1 month old.
Before now, Sienna was debt-free because of aid from scholarships.
An email from the university informed her that her residency had changed to non-resident.
"My heart sank," Sienna said.
And then the tuition bill came afterward. Her in-state tuition at UNT Dallas was $4,799 and as a non-resident, it more than doubled to $10,873.
This, all after a federal judge overturned the Texas Dream Act.
"Everything got stripped away from me," Sienna said. "I had everything before. I had everything paid off."
The Texas Dream Act was a bipartisan bill signed into law in 2001 by Gov. Rick Perry.
It was the first law of its kind in the U.S., which allowed any student who attends three years of a Texas high school and graduates to receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. That included undocumented students.
That program has come to an end, 24 years later.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said the state won't challenge the ruling.
"This order, one of the big objections we have to it, is that it effectively conscripts or obligates every system of higher education in the state to become immigration agents," said David Donatti, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas.
About three weeks after the order, Donatti and others moved to intervene in the hopes of bringing the Texas Dream Act back.
"This is not a case about immigration, this is not a case about whether people can remain in the U.S.," he said. "It's a question about people who are here, who have lived here their entire lives and who have the ability, competence and desire to pursue an education in this state."
Republican Rep. Mike Olcott supports the reversal.
"To my understanding, the only way you can offer in-state tuition to illegal aliens is if you offer that same rate to citizens living outside your state so they are given the same shot illegal aliens does," Olcott told CBS News Texas in June.
Now, Sienna is attending a community college, praying that one day she can graduate.