Texas public colleges and universities have been directed to identify undocumented students to begin charging them out-of-state tuition rates. This move comes after a recent district court ruling that blocks undocumented students from paying in-state tuition. The ruling overturns a long-standing practice that allowed undocumented students meeting certain criteria—such as graduating from Texas high schools—to qualify for resident tuition rates.
In a letter sent last week to college presidents, Texas Higher Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser stated that institutions must evaluate their student bodies to determine which students are eligible for in-state tuition but are not lawfully present in the United States. “Each institution must assess the population of students who have established eligibility for Texas resident tuition … who are not lawfully present and will therefore need to be reclassified as non-residents,” Rosser wrote. He added that the new non-resident tuition classification will go into effect starting the fall 2025 semester. The letter, however, offered no specific instructions on how colleges should carry out the reclassification process.
Concerns Over Implementation and Student Impact
The directive has raised concerns among Texas public colleges administrators and immigration policy advocates about how institutions are expected to determine a student’s legal status. Melanie Gottlieb, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, explained that most colleges do not track immigration status unless students are applying with a visa. “There is not a simple way for an institution to determine if a person is undocumented,” she said. “It’s a challenging question.”
Experts argue that the lack of clear procedural guidance creates confusion and raises the risk of misclassification. There is also growing concern that this policy could disproportionately affect students who have grown up in Texas and completed their education through the state’s public school system, only to now face financial barriers in pursuing higher education.
Texas public colleges Large Undocumented Student Population at Risk
Texas is home to the second-largest population of undocumented college students in the U.S., with approximately 57,000 enrolled in higher education institutions, according to data from the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. The proposed tuition changes could impact thousands of these students, many of whom have deep ties to the state.
Ahilan Arulanantham, a law professor at UCLA and co-director of the school’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, warned that the tuition hike could make college inaccessible for many. “This would make higher education unaffordable for thousands and thousands of young Texans who have been through the public school system in Texas,” he told Inside Higher Ed. “Texas has a huge number of long-term undocumented youth who can either be integrated into the state economy or be shut out of higher education.”
As the fall 2025 deadline approaches, colleges and students alike await further guidance on how the new policy will be enforced—and how it might reshape access to higher education across Texas.