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DOJ Expands Lawsuits Against State College Tuition Discounts for Undocumented Immigrants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New York, Connecticut and Vermont over laws that allow immigrants in the country without permanent legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live. The suits, filed Aug.…
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Key points
- The U.S. Department of Justice sued New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, bringing the total number of states challenged over noncitizen in-state tuition policies to 17.
- Federal prosecutors contend that federal law prohibits states from granting in-state college tuition rates to noncitizens without permanent legal status while charging out-of-state U.S. citizens higher rates.
- Courts have already struck down similar in-state tuition provisions in five states, including Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Illinois.
WASHINGTON NewsWK — The U.S. Department of Justice has expanded its sweeping federal legal campaign against state policies that offer reduced in-state college tuition to noncitizens living in the country without permanent legal status, filing new federal lawsuits against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.
The legal filings represent the latest actions under an ongoing federal effort to enforce immigration law and end state-level tuition provisions that federal officials argue unlawfully discriminate against American citizens from other states. With the addition of the three Northeastern states, federal prosecutors have now sued 17 states over higher education tuition policies enacted over the past two decades.
Why it matters here
For residents across Pensacola, Escambia County, and Santa Rosa County, the national legal battle underscores important principles of higher education funding, fairness for taxpayers, and the rule of law. Public postsecondary institutions in Northwest Florida—such as the University of West Florida in Ferry Pass and Pensacola State College—operate under Florida residency statutes designed to steward state taxpayer dollars responsibly while serving state residents.
In many of the states targeted by federal prosecutors, out-of-state American citizens—including active-duty military service members stationed away from home and students relocating across state lines—must pay full out-of-state tuition rates. Meanwhile, noncitizens living in those states without legal status who completed local high schools receive discounted resident rates. For military communities surrounding Naval Air Station Pensacola and local families paying higher education costs, the lawsuit centers on ensuring equal treatment for American students across state lines.
Federal court rulings and preemption
The litigation stems from an April 2025 executive order directing the U.S. Department of Justice to challenge state laws favoring noncitizens over American citizens in higher education. Federal attorneys argue that state policies providing discounted tuition to noncitizens without permanent legal status violate federal statutory restrictions that forbid states from offering higher education benefits based on residency unless the same benefits are made available to all U.S. citizens.
Federal courts have already ruled against state tuition policies in five jurisdictions: Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Illinois. In four of those cases—Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Oklahoma—state leadership elected not to defend the challenged state statutes, choosing instead to join with the federal government to invalidate the provisions.
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“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division in an official statement. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
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In addition to the newest filings against New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, active federal lawsuits remain pending against California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
National scope and legal debate
The ongoing legal push targets state frameworks that permit noncitizens to qualify for resident tuition rates by meeting state residency benchmarks, such as attending a local high school for a designated period. National educational advocacy groups report that at least 20 states and Washington, D.C., have historically provided in-state tuition eligibility to noncitizens without permanent legal status.
Advocates for these policies maintain that state regulations were designed to maximize state educational investments in students who grew up locally. Diego Sánchez, vice president of policy and strategy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, characterized the federal litigation as an unprecedented effort to overturn long-standing state decisions.
Sánchez noted that affected students “still have to apply, they still have to be admitted, pay tuition and meet the same academic requirements as everyone else,” arguing that the regulations allow students who graduated from local high schools to pay the same rates as their peers.
Higher education data indicates that roughly 525,000 noncitizens without permanent legal status attend colleges and universities nationwide, including approximately 129,900 individuals eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. As federal court challenges continue to proceed across multiple federal circuits, the litigation is poised to establish standard national rules governing how state universities treat American citizens versus noncitizen residents.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team.
