Colorado Gov. Jared Polis Defends In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants, Blames Federal Border Failures

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis went on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends Saturday and defended his state's practice of offering in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants, arguing the policy exists because Washington won't do its job.

"Because the federal government has not gotten immigration in order, because they failed to secure our border," Polis said, states are left to "do the best we can with people." He said Colorado's rule applies to anyone who attended high school in the state for at least three years and is a state resident, regardless of immigration status, whether they're "from Texas or Mexico or wherever you're from."

Polis noted that Colorado isn't the first state to do this. "The first state to do in-state tuition for undocumented folks was Texas, and they had it for 25 years," he said. "Theirs was struck down in court." Polis pointed to that history to argue this isn't some fringe blue-state experiment — it's a policy multiple states have tried, in his telling both red and blue ones.

What Polis Left Out

Polis cited Texas's 25-year run as precedent for these programs without dwelling on the fact that the law was eventually struck down in court. He didn't explain the legal theory that felled it, and Fox & Friends didn't press him on what that might mean for Colorado's own law going forward.

Polis also drew a distinction that's worth taking seriously. He stressed that Colorado does not give illegal immigrant students access to federal aid like Pell Grants or student loans. "You're not only having a hard time coming up with the $15,000," he said, "but, my goodness, if you have that potential to be a future engineer, to help develop our future, we want you here in Colorado." In-state tuition, in other words, is a discount on state-set rates, not a handout of federal taxpayer cash.

The Real Argument

The strongest case against these laws isn't that they're some kind of secret giveaway. It's that Colorado taxpayers subsidize college costs for state residents through appropriations to public universities, and in-state tuition rates reflect that subsidy. Extending it to people who are in the country illegally means state taxpayers, including families who followed immigration law, are subsidizing tuition for those who didn't. Critics have long argued this rewards illegal presence and undercuts the deterrent effect that consistent immigration enforcement is supposed to have.

Polis's counter is that these are functionally Colorado kids. They grew up there, went to high school there for years, and plan to build careers there. Punishing them for a status they didn't choose as minors, he argues, doesn't make the border more secure. It just produces fewer trained engineers and more people locked out of the workforce they were raised to join.

Polis himself pointed to federal inaction as the root of the problem, noting that a national DREAM Act "might cover some of them" but doesn't exist, leaving states to write their own rules. Whether that federal vacuum justifies Colorado's specific policy is a separate question voters and courts are still fighting over.

What Comes Next

With Texas's version of this law already struck down in court, Polis is defending a policy that has already lost once elsewhere on similar terrain. Whether Colorado's law faces the same legal fate remains to be seen, but Polis is for now making his case on cable news rather than in a courtroom.