You don’t think they also stopped by the local college to register and apply for their free tuition?
I don’t know about college and free tuition in California but I do know about a personal encounter with a group of 5 older girls being shepherded through the doors of an eye glass sales place of a very well known medical clinic. The shepherd looked at me with an expression that said ‘what are you going to do about it?
Texas students, including students brought here illegally, do not get FREE tuition. All students who have lived in Texas a number of years (including those brought in illegally by parents), get a lower tuition cost than students coming into the state and not having lived that long in Texas. Therefore, an illegal coming in today cannot go to a college today and get a lower rate for tuition and cannot get FREE tuition as that does not exist.
Scholarships are different - a student may get a scholarship from the college or other entity paying their tuition cost and that includes scholars and athletes.