ACC prepares to sue over Dream Act repeal

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Austin Community College Board of Trustees voted over the weekend to join a soon-to-be filed lawsuit over the repeal of the Texas Dream Act.

The Texas Dream Act previously allowed undocumented students in Texas to receive in-state tuition to public universities, so long as they met certain requirements, like attending high school in Texas and being on a path to permanent legal residency. The law was repealed June 4 after the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Texas, arguing the law was prohibited under federal law. Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed and settled the case.

After a letter from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was sent to public colleges and universities across the state, ordering them to identify their undocumented students and adjust tuition rates, Austin Community College joins a group of others suing to bring the Dream Act back.

Now, the ACC board is hoping to bring the Dream Act back.

ACC Board Vice Chair Manny Gonzalez said the decision came down to supporting their students as they have done since the Dream Act was first passed.

“This issue is not an issue of politics, but an issue of legal clarity. Texas Dream Act has been on the books for over 20 years,” Gonzalez said. “The repeal disrupts much of the work that we do in terms of supporting those students, and so we’re seeking legal clarity on how to best advocate for these students moving forward.”

Gonzalez said that there are challenges that come with trying to identify which students are undocumented at ACC, though he estimated the number at around 500.

“There are inherently dynamics that are challenging by virtue of the data collection that come with tracking these students, and so we’re seeking to get better information of what’s going to be required of us as an institution in terms of collecting that data,” Gonzalez said.

The Texas A&M and University of Houston Systems responded to requests for comment saying they are evaluating the decision and how to comply with state law. A spokesperson for the Texas A&M System clarified that they do not currently keep a list of undocumented students. A spokesperson for the UT System said that its schools will require students to produce documents proving their legal status in Texas in order to receive in-state tuition.

Daniel Banda is one student who said the Dream Act was the only way he got through college.

Banda is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, and he said he received in-state tuition throughout his education. Even that level of tuition was still a significant financial burden — at the beginning of the spring 2024 semester, Banda’s protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program expired. The immigration firm he had been hired at that was helping him pay for college was no longer an option.

“I lost my job at that immigration firm, so I had no way to pay for school,” Banda said. “By that point I had realized the potential of an education and the potential benefits that it could give you.”

Knowing the value of education, he put his entire tuition on a credit card, a risk he took knowing it would pay off down the line. If he had suddenly been forced to pay for out-of-state tuition, he is not sure taking on that level of debt would have been possible.

“One year of out-of-state tuition at UTD is $44,000 as opposed to the $14,000 it is for in-state tuition,” Banda said. “I can’t say I have any credit cards that have a balance that high.”

The Dream Act was signed into law under former Gov. Rick Perry in 2001, a decision he defended in a 2012 Republican presidential primary debate. Now, Perry said times have changed, blaming the Biden administration’s immigration policies for changing the situation.

“I think we’re going to have to deal with this issue of immigration before any of these programs can come back into place and to be thoughtfully put in place,” Perry said. “I think that’s probably the proper way.”

With the future uncertain, Banda now plans to attend law school. Between the repeal of the Dream Act and the climate surrounding immigration and undocumented immigrants in Texas, Banda said he might look elsewhere.

Gonzalez hopes to protect students like Banda, saying that he and his colleagues are defending undocumented students because of the ways immigrants are “critical to the fabric” of communities.

“They’re our colleagues, they’re our neighbors, they’re our family,” Gonzalez said. “And so our effort, our hopes as trustees, as a college as a whole, is to ensure each individual can reach their full potential.”