Even though Jorge and his younger sister are only two years apart in age, their college experiences are headed in different directions as undocumented students lose access to in-state tuition in Texas.

They were both motivated and highly engaged high school students in Central Texas. But after graduation, he went to Austin Community College and had to work three jobs to pay for tuition. She enrolled at Texas State University on a full scholarship.

It wasn’t academics or ambition that separated the siblings, but their immigration status. Their parents, seeking economic opportunity, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with Jorge in their arms when he was 1 year old. They had his sister in Austin a short time later.

This fall, Jorge hoped to finally be on equal footing with her. The 21-year-old had saved enough money to afford tuition at Texas State and had applied to transfer there to study mechanical engineering. His plans depended on having access to in-state tuition, the lower rate that Texas residents pay to attend public colleges and is often half, or even a third, of what out-of-state students are charged.

But the siblings’ path may soon split for good. Last week, state officials agreed to the federal government’s demand to stop offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented students living in Texas.

Jorge is one of thousands of students whose education plans may have been truncated by the ruling. Their aspirations — to become engineers or lawyers, or join other professions — haven’t disappeared. But the road has grown steeper. For some, it may now be out of reach.

The Texas Tribune spoke to four students who were brought into the country when they were young and are weighing what last week’s ruling means for their college plans. They requested anonymity out of fear that being identified publicly could make them or their families a target for deportation.

The students said they had been on high alert for months, fearing that the Texas Dream Act — the 2001 law that allowed undocumented students to qualify for in-state tuition and state financial aid — would be repealed this year as anti-immigrant rhetoric soared with the start of a new Trump administration.

Read the full article about undocumented students in Texas by Jessica Priest at The 74.