New research from the American Immigration Council highlights the harmful economic effects of increasing public college and university tuition for certain long-term Texas resident students. In 2001, Texas became the first state in the country to extend in-state tuition to all students who meet certain residency and other requirements, regardless of their immigration status. Since the passage of House Bill (HB) 1403, all students who have lived in-state in the three years before graduating from Texas high schools or receiving their GED, known as affidavit students, have been eligible to pay the in-state tuition rate at any of the state’s public colleges and universities—which is, on average, three times less expensive than the out-of-state rate. This landmark law has made the state’s college tuition system fairer by providing equal access to the same tuition levels for all Texas students—irrespective of immigration status—at the state colleges to which they are admitted. 

The new research finds that efforts to create a new category of Texas residents who are charged out-of-state tuition would not only increase hardship on the affected students but could also harm the Texas economy.