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WITCHITA FALLS, Texas - A federal judge will not allow a challenge to an earlier ruling that removed in-state tuition for some undocumented students.
Austin Community College; La Unión del Pueblo Entero, an advocacy group for the low-income community in the Rio Grande Valley; Students for Affordable Tuition; and Oscar Silva, a University of North Texas student, were denied their motion to intervene Friday in a federal district court.
The groups and Silva have already filed their intent to appeal the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Justice Department lawsuit against Texas
The backstory:
The Justice Department sued Texas on June 4, claiming the Dream Act, which allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition as long as certain conditions are met, violated federal laws.
A settlement between the sides was announced later that same day.
The groups opposed to the settlement claimed that the state and federal governments worked to end the program after attempts to repeal the program failed in the state legislature.
Austin Community College, in the filing, said 440 students were impacted by the decision.
Court documents state the school expects the decision will cause some students to see tuition rates jump from $1,020 to $4,236.
In another filing, SAT said the average cost for their members to attend a college or university would
Texas public colleges and universities must identify undocumented students
Texas Higher Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser sent a letter to college and university presidents in the state asking them to identify which attending students were undocumented.
The letter did not provide guidelines on how institutions should handle the identification process or who would have access to the information.
It also indicated that the process would need to be completed before the end of summer so undocumented students can be "charged non-resident tuition" for the fall semester.
Texas Dream Act
Dig deeper:
For nearly 25 years, the Texas Dream Act has provided access to in-state tuition for thousands of undocumented migrant students at Texas colleges and universities.
The law allowed students without legal resident status 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 promising to apply for legal resident status as soon as possible.
The Texas Dream Act was signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Perry with bipartisan support in the state legislature.
Well before DACA provided federal protection to undocumented children, Texas was the first state to create this type of tuition program for them.
Now more than a dozen states provide a similar program.
The program serves around 20,000 students in Texas, according to the nonprofit organization Every Texan.
Despite multiple Republican attempts to repeal the law, those efforts never made it to a full vote in the Texas house.
The most recent attempt happened this session. Senate Bill 1798 passed out of committee on May 14, but was marked as "not placed again on intent calendar" on May 26.
The settlement between the state and federal governments came just days after the most recent Texas legislative session ended.
The Source: Information in this article comes from court filings in the District Court of Northern Texas and previous FOX 7 reporting.