“The message is simple,” Perry concluded, “educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Education is the future, and (echoing Cesar Chavez’s slogan) yes we can.
The instate tuition is for children who have grown up in Texas public schools, graduated from Texas public schools, and are in the process of obtaining their own American citizenship. There are no rewards for any illegal family members nor for those students who don’t seek citizenship, only those young adults who have graduated from Texas schools and have chosen to become American citizens despite what their parents did. Additionally, while they will be an American citizen when their citizenship process is completed, their in state status will be for colleges and universities in their own home state of Texas. It is not a federal mandate other states must follow, simply a program in The State of Texas and affecting Texas colleges and universities.
This is a complicated issue, but do at least remember we are talking about young adults who are going to the effort to obtain their own legal citizenship here in The United States and what benefits their citizenship choice provides for them, not about what their illegal parents may or may not have gotten away with.