AUSTIN, Texas – For two decades on Texas college campuses, it was a resilient law in the face of Republicans' hardening immigration agenda: in-state tuition prices for students who did not have legal resident status.

But in a flash, the Texas policy that was the first of its kind in the U.S. was halted Wednesday, blocked by a federal judge hours after the Justice Department sued to dismantle it. Republican Texas leaders did not fight the challenge, but instead eagerly joined it.

The surprise and quick end to the law, known as the “Texas Dream Act,” stunned immigration advocates and Democrats, who called it a cruel punishment for hardworking students that will ultimately hurt the state's economy. Republicans cheered the outcome and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that states

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