MALDEF Challenges Exclusion of Military Veterans From State Education Program

SAN ANTONIO, TX – Today, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the nation’s leading Latino legal organization, filed suit in federal district court challenging the exclusion of certain military veterans from the Texas Hazlewood Act, which provides a tuition waiver at Texas public colleges and universities. Although the program is intended to further the education of honorably-discharged Texas veterans, the State excludes from the Hazlewood tuition exemption those veterans who were not U.S. citizens at the time they entered the service, including those veterans who subsequently became citizens during wartime and thus served as citizens in defense of the United States. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include two honorably-discharged Texas veterans who are naturalized U.S. citizens as well as the American GI Forum of Texas, a veteran’s advocacy organization.