UT Austin Wants to Dole out Aid to Illegal Aliens
Jose Nino
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The University of Texas at Austin is handing out free tuition, but only to students with families making less than or equal to $65,000.
But it doesn’t stop there. Non-citizens and illegal aliens get to receive this aid as well. Other students are eligible for financial aid, but they don’t receive full coverage.
Early in July, UT Austin unveiled this program, which will go into effect in 2020 and is marketed as an “investment in the future for students.”
The university’s Board of Regents voted to set up a $160 million endowment through Texas’ Permanent University Fund. The endowment will be used to pay for the full tuition cost of nearly 8,600 undergraduates whose households earn no higher than $65,000 per year. It would also partially cover the tuition of 5,700 students with household incomes of up to $125,000.
According to The Texas Tribune, UT system board chair Kevin Eltife said “Our main focus at the UT system is our students. That’s it, that’s what we’re in business for is to provide an affordable, accessible education for our students.”
He added, “We all know the struggles that hardworking families are having putting their kids through school. What we’ve done here is repurposed an endowment into another endowment that will provide tuition assistance to a lot of the working families in Texas.”
Presently, UT is already footing the bill for students with a household income of $30,000 or lower.
UT Austin spokesman J.B. Bird informed Campus Reform that these benefits will be given to illegal immigrants provided that they graduated from a Texas high school. Bird stated, “In keeping with state law, students are not asked about their immigration status.”
He specifically pointed to SB 1403, a state law, which has “provided equal access to higher education for graduates of state public high schools, regardless of their immigration status.”
UT Chancellor James B. Milliken said “There is no greater engine of social and economic mobility than a college degree, and this initiative ensures that more Texans will benefit from a high-quality UT Austin education.”
Milliken added “the use of Permanent University Funds to invest directly in students demonstrates the strong commitment of the Board of Regents and UT Austin to the values of public higher education.”
This is another sign of the changing times in Texas.
Austin has been a leftist bastion for decades. So, a policy like this fits in line with the Left’s political ethos.
Immigration is one of the biggest issues in the upcoming 2020 elections. Based on demographics trends, the Left is capitalizing on mass migration to build a new voting bloc, social consequences be damned.
UT Austin’s financial aid program for illegals is just one of many strategies to cultivate this voter base.
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