Facts
- Texas enacted Tex. Educ. Code § 21.031 (1975) to withhold state education funds for children not “legally admitted” to the United States and to permit local school districts to deny their enrollment.
- Tyler Independent School District implemented the statute by charging undocumented students tuition of about $1,000 per child per year.
- Undocumented school-age children of Mexican origin, suing under pseudonyms in a class action, challenged the statute and the local policy under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
- The federal district court permanently enjoined enforcement, holding the statute unconstitutional; the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
- The Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction, consolidated a related case, and reviewed the constitutionality of Texas’s exclusion of undocumented children from free public education.
Issues
- Whether undocumented children are “persons within [a State’s] jurisdiction” protected by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Whether Texas may deny or condition free K–12 public education on tuition for undocumented school-age children consistent with equal protection.
Decision
- The Court affirmed, holding that undocumented children are “persons” entitled to equal protection.
- The Court held that § 21.031’s funding denial and authorization to exclude undocumented children from public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.
- The Court declined to classify undocumented aliens as a suspect class and did not treat education as a fundamental right, but required Texas to show more than a minimally rational justification given the severe, lasting burden imposed on children.
- The Court rejected Texas’s asserted interests in conserving resources, improving educational quality, and deterring unlawful immigration as insufficiently supported and inadequate to justify imposing the burden on children not responsible for their status.
Legal Principles
- The Equal Protection Clause extends to any “person within [a State’s] jurisdiction,” including undocumented aliens subject to the state’s laws.
- A state may not impose a major, enduring deprivation on a discrete group of children based on their undocumented status absent a substantial justification tied to an important state interest.
- Fiscal considerations and generalized deterrence claims do not justify excluding undocumented children from free public elementary and secondary education when the policy chiefly punishes children for their parents’ conduct.
- The holding concerns access to public K–12 education and does not declare education a fundamental right or undocumented status a suspect classification.
Conclusion
The Court held that Texas could not deny free public K–12 education to undocumented children because they are protected “persons” under the Fourteenth Amendment and Texas failed to justify imposing a severe, lifelong educational disability on children based solely on their immigration status.