ACC Board Joins Lawsuit Over Texas Dream Act Repeal

Austin Community College District trustees voted unanimously at a special meeting Saturday to join a new lawsuit seeking clarity after the repeal this month of the Texas Dream Act — the first community college to do so after a North Texas judge struck down long-standing in-state tuition rates for residents without legal status.

A civil rights organization and private law firms who trustees declined to name plan to file suit Monday and ACC trustees will file a motion to join as soon as Monday, trustees told the American-Statesman.

ACC trustees said the quick repeal of the law "prevented sufficient notice or consideration" and bypassed a process "meant to ensure fairness and transparency." By joining the lawsuit, the trustees, the elected governing body of the college district, said they hope to gain guidance on the ruling and represent the impact the repeal would have on its students and ability to meet workforce demands, which it was not able to do before the repeal. Trustees ultimately hope to restore the 2001 Texas Dream Act, they told the American-Statesman.

The action comes after the U.S. Department of Justice, under the tough-on-immigration Trump administration, sued Texas on June 4, claiming the state’s 25-year-old law allowing eligible students without documentation to access in-state tuition is "unconstitutional." Declining to fight it, state Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the White House's suit the same day and asked a North Texas federal judge to strike down the law, which the judge did within hours.

The swift repeal occurred two days after the end of Texas Legislature, where a bill filed to repeal the Texas Dream Act by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, failed to make it to the Senate floor. Colleges and universities now must scramble to identify students benefiting from the 2001 act and change their residency status, subjecting them to tuition rates up to four times as high.

"We all support laws with consequences for individuals who are gang members, drug dealers, and human traffickers. Instead of doing that, the court’s decision punishes students training to be nurses, electricians, or software developers," Sean Hassan, chair of the ACC board, wrote to the American-Statesman. "The ACC Board vote to take legal action simply asks the court to reconsider its decision until we’ve had a fair and thorough opportunity to voice these concerns."

RELATED: Texas Dream Act author, experts warn against repealing in-state tuition for migrant students

The college educates 70,000 students annually and is the largest workforce educator in the region. The judge’s ruling threatens the college’s ability to meet workforce needs, Hassan said, and unfairly takes opportunity from current students.

Statewide, an estimated 57,000 students without legal documentation are enrolled in higher education, and 500 are currently at ACC and would likely be forced to drop out due to the significant additional expense, the college estimates. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board estimates the state will need 550,000 credentials to keep up with expected job growth by 2030, and is short by 192,000 according to the most recent report.

Moreover, the sudden repeal left "confusion" over how to enforce the new provisions and did not give institutions a chance to state the law’s impact and benefit, Trustee Stephanie Gharakhanian said in an interview with the Statesman. She said the board carefully deliberated before pursuing legal action and decided to contest because of the process in which the repeal took place.

"The fact that this is something that came about in a matter of hours without any public conversation, opportunity for stakeholders to be consulted, knowing that its effect is immediate and far reaching," she said. "The only opportunity we had was to intervene."

What is the Texas Dream Act?

The 2001 Dream Act passed with bipartisan support. The law, signed by then-Republican Gov. Rick Perry, specifically granted residency status to students without legal status who graduate from a Texas high school, live in the state for three years and sign an affidavit asserting their desire to pursue citizenship. It was the first law of its kind nationally, but more than 20 states followed.

Though the Trump administration argues the 2001 Act provides a "special benefit" to non-U.S. citizens not available to citizens, violating the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the bill's author, former state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, and Hassan say the Dream Act holds students without status to higher standards than U.S. citizens, who just must live in the state for one year.

OPINION: Texas just turned its back on Dreamers — and it’s going to cost us

The board is fighting the lawsuit with pro bono legal aid, and no college resources will be used, Gharakhanian said. She added that ACC’s legal action is separate from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s petition on June 11 to intervene on behalf of students and involves civil rights organizations and private firms that will be revealed at a later date.

ACC's legal action could have national implications, Trustee Manny Gonzalez said, setting a precedent for state’s with similar programs. He said ACC has graduated thousands of students through the Texas Dream Act who otherwise would not have been able to enroll, leading to the fulfillment of crucial jobs and critical workforce needs that have fortified the state's economy.

"This is not an insignificant community," Gonzalez said in an interview. "Without these students, without these graduates, the fabric of our workforce, the fabric of our society, begins to fray, and it becomes a bigger challenge to address the needs of the region."

Gonzalez said the college hopes to overturn the repeal and elevate the valuable contribution students through the Dream Act make to the state. When asked if the college feared retaliation from the Trump-allied Gov. Greg Abbott or Paxton, he said ACC believes in courageously standing up for students and he is proud of the board action.

"I recognize that his may bring additional attention to Austin Community College in terms of scrutiny and questioning of whether or not what we are doing is in line with with the political moment, but my colleagues and I believe firmly that we are operating with, again, the students' best interests and in the community's best interest," Gonzalez said. "We feel confident in what we're doing."