Texas ends scholarships for undocumented students. This sounds cruel, until you realize almost every nation has the same policy.

Photo above: Dolores and Maeve from Westworld. “This is the new world. And in this world you can be whoever the f**k you want . . . “

At first my heart went out to Ximena, an undocumented 18-year-old who was planning to get a PhD in Chemistry, but now has to rethink her plans. (see link at bottom). Texas is ending scholarships and in-state tuition subsidies for migrant children without visas or citizenship.

Ximena is only 18, and possibly she COULD have gone on to win the Nobel prize in chemistry. Or be a college instructor, or government researcher. There are 2,000 American chemistry PhD degrees awarded each year, so it was possible.

Ximena has been in American (Texas) schools since kindergarten, so she already has many years of instruction at taxpayer expense. I assume her mother/parents brought her to Texas as a small child. If she’d been born here, Ximena would be a citizen, and entitled to public education and free college. And not the focus of the article below.

I don’t want to demonize Ximena. This situation is NOT her fault. But Ximena would have the same outcome, whether her mother had crossed the English Channel instead of the Rio Grande, and whether she ended up in Herefordshire instead of Houston.

In fact, when you do a Google search for “countries with free tuition for migrants”, it serves up just Finland, Sweden and Norway.

I would LOVE it if America had enough money to feed, house, clothe, and educate every migrant who yearns to come here after seeing a TV show like Westworld or Resident Alien. But that would be half the planet – about 4 billion people. And America already has a housing crisis. Imagine trying to get zoning variances and construction permits for enough apartments and manufactured housing for 4 billion additional newcomers.

My advice to Ximena, and anybody else who wants to attend an American college: apply for citizenship, or an F1 student visa. Citizenship is probably easier these days, though.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

What’s happened since Texas killed in-state tuition for undocumented students

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ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

A sad situation, but I pretty much agree. However, I have to point out, if her parents were here in the years she was receiving that "tax-payer funded" public education, there is a VERY good chance that they paid more in taxes than most of our billionaires and major corporations did during that same time period.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@ChipmunkErnie there is no info on her mother's job, or whether she earned enough income to pay federal income taxes.

however, since schools are funded by property taxes, Ximena's mother would need to be a homeowner with a mortgage to have contributed anything to the funding of local schools

ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida That's a popular fallacy: property taxes are paid by the property owner, and in the case of rental properties part of a tenant's rent goes to those property taxes. So, unless a person is homeless, in one way or another they contribute to property taxes.

And in my state, local property taxes pay for schools, but the state also adds funding to schools based on a formula of need.

Pherick · 41-45, M

Ximena has been in American (Texas) schools since kindergarten, so she already has many years of instruction at taxpayer expense.

If her parents were undocumented immigrants, then they both have been paying into the system, and will not be able to get anything back from it. Compared to a natural citizen they paid in, but their daughter is now getting shafted. So Ximena is very well owed the scholarship.

Also this statement

In fact, when you do a Google search for “countries with free tuition for migrants”, it serves up just Finland, Sweden and Norway.

completely false.

Germany offers free tuition at public universities to all international students regardless of nationality, with extensive programs specifically supporting refugees including guest student opportunities without tuition fees. Norway provides free university education to all students regardless of nationality, while Finland offers free tuition to EU/EEA students and all students studying in Finnish or Swedish. Beyond these, France, Austria, Czech Republic, and Turkey also offer tuition-free education at state universities for international students, and countries like Greece, Italy, Estonia, Iceland, and Denmark (for EU students) provide free or very low-cost education options. A simple web search reveals dozens of countries offering free or affordable higher education to migrants and international students, making the original claim laughably narrow and factually wrong.

**Sources:**
- [Study Abroad for Free: 50+ Universities with NO Tuition Fee for International Students](https://www.globaladmissions.com/blog/study-abroad-for-free-universities-with-no-tuition-fee-for-international-students)
- [Where can you study abroad for free?](https://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/studying-abroad/where-can-you-study-abroad-free)
- [Studying for free in Germany as a refugee](https://www.studying-in-germany.org/studying-for-free-in-germany-as-a-refugee/)
- [Countries with Free Education for Foreign Students](https://bismoscow.com/news/blog/countries-with-free-education-for-international-students/)
- [Tuition-Free Universities in Finland, Norway, and Germany](https://www.mastersportal.com/articles/1042/tuition-free-universities-in-finland-norway-and-germany.html)

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Pherick you presume that Ximena's parents have enough income to pay taxes. I'm guessing probably not. Virtually no illegal aliens own homes and pay property taxes which fund the schools. and half of legitimate americans and visa holders get a complete refund of any federal income tax withheld.

for more information on this topic please google "makers vs. takers"

Pherick · 41-45, M

@SusanInFlorida

Your "guessing" ... but the data shows the real story.

For the United States as a whole, immigrants’ share of total output was 18.0% in 2023 (see Table 1) or $2.1 trillion in 2024 dollars. This means that the contribution of immigrants to economic output is larger than their share of the total population, as immigrants made up 14.3% of the total U.S. population in the same year.

One way to quantify the contribution of immigrants to the U.S. economy is by accounting for the wages and salaries they earn, as well as the income of immigrant-owned businesses, as a share of all wages, salaries, and business income during a given period. For the United States as a whole, immigrants’ share of total output was 18.0% in 2023 (see Table 1) or $2.1 trillion in 2024 dollars. This means that the contribution of immigrants to economic output is larger than their share of the total population, as immigrants made up 14.3% of the total U.S. population in the same year.

https://www.epi.org/publication/immigrants-and-the-economy/#:~:text=How%20much%20do%20immigrants%20contribute%20to%20the,than%20their%20share%20of%20the%20total%20population

Undocumented immigrants play a crucial role in the U.S. economy, not only through their labor but also through substantial tax contributions that support public services and government programs. In 2023, households led by undocumented immigrants paid $89.8B in total taxes. This includes:

$33.9B in state and local taxes and $55.8B in federal taxes.
In 2023, approximately 4.9% of the U.S. workforce was undocumented.
89.4% of undocumented immigrants are of working age.

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/about-immigration/tax-contributions/

MistyCee

Fyi, I can't get that link to work.

FWIW, Texas has had issues with its policy of waiving out of state tuition for certain out of state students for ages.

Justafantasy · M

You're far overestimating the amount of people who want to move to the US. A few Mexicans and Cubans. Doesn't amount to 4 billion. The amount of "new immigrants" there that have been there for generations (as well as here in Canada) far out ways them

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Justafantasy 4 billion is hyperbole, given the vastness of the atlantic and pacific oceans.

many people are simply willing to try their luck at the next nation over. and after that, the next one, and so on. If you put them all in Mexico, they'd cross the Rio Grande en masse

Justafantasy · M

@SusanInFlorida even though I've travelled there often for work I've never had any urge to move there.

FloorGenAdm · 51-55, M

How'd they do the paperwork before they ended it? 📝

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