The Department of Justice is suing New York, Connecticut and Vermont to challenge laws that let non-citizens benefit from college tuition rates offered to legal residents and other financial assistance, alleging the state laws unconstitutionally discriminate against American citizens who don’t receive reduced fees, scholarships or other financial benefits.
“Congress long ago made clear that States cannot put illegal aliens over our nation’s own citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward in a statement.
“By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, New York, Vermont, and Connecticut are doing just that. No more,” Woodward added.
Woodward emphasized the administration’s broader effort against the practice nationwide.
“As of today, we have now sued every state in the Second Circuit that seeks to thwart Congress’s clear prohibition by placing alien over citizen. And our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to our Nation’s own citizens.”
At least 14 states with similar laws — including New Jersey, Minnesota and California — have already been sued by President Trump’s DOJ.
The cases hinge on a single federal statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1623(a), which says an immigrant not lawfully present cannot receive a postsecondary education benefit based on state residency unless that same benefit is available to every U.S. citizen, regardless of which state they live in, with the DOJ’s argument being that offering in-state rates to undocumented residents while charging out-of-state citizens more flips that rule on its head.
The laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal aliens with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, all in direct conflict with federal law.
“The Department of Justice is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise that illegal aliens will not receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment over America’s own citizens,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, adding “As our Nation marks 250 years of freedom, we will continue to challenge state laws that place aliens over citizens in clear defiance of Congress’s commands.”
The Trump administration has already secured victories in several states through federal court rulings.
The Department’s efforts have already delivered several victories for the American people, as four similar lawsuits in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have resulted in favorable orders permanently enjoining and declaring unconstitutional analogous laws that gave reduced tuition to illegal aliens.
In July, the New Orleans-based Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas federal judge’s ruling that enjoined the Lone Star State from paying tuition for illegal immigrants at public universities.
Some states have resisted the legal challenges despite the DOJ pressure.
California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Illinois have continued their policies despite lawsuits, while in Minnesota, a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s case, allowing public universities to maintain in-state tuition and scholarship access for immigrants without legal status.
Illinois has also expanded benefits, with the state enacting a new law that took effect in January 2026, making such students eligible for financial aid programs including grants, scholarships, and stipends following a federal lawsuit.
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said in a statement, adding “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
The DOJ has specifically targeted the wide tuition disparities between in-state and out-of-state students in its legal arguments.
At the prestigious Rutgers University in New Jersey, residents pay $14,933 a year for tuition while non-New Jersey residents pay $35,758, and Montclair State University charges New Jersey residents $15,678 a year for tuition while charging out-of-state students $26,394, according to the DOJ’s lawsuit.
In April, the DOJ reached a settlement with Nebraska over the issue.
The DOJ filed a complaint against Nebraska and joined with the state in filing a proposed consent decree to permanently prohibit the state from enforcing laws that require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates to all immigrants who maintain Nebraska residency, regardless of whether they are lawfully present in the U.S., with the complaint also seeking to enjoin Nebraska from enforcing state laws that afford financial assistance and scholarships to undocumented immigrants.
“For two decades, the Nebraska legislature gave preferential treatment to illegal aliens over American citizens,” Stanley Woodward said, adding “We encourage all States to follow the commonsense correction of Attorney General Hilgers, ceasing any policy that rewards illegal entry into our nation with educational opportunities not available to U.S. citizens.”
Texas has agreed to end in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants, with Attorney General Ken Paxton filing a joint motion along with the Trump administration to end the law on the same day the Department of Justice sued Texas over the long-standing state education policy.
In the viral moment, the DOJ’s litigation campaign represents a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s broader effort to restrict federal and state benefits to undocumented immigrants.
President Trump issued executive orders in February directing federal agencies to stop public benefits from going to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and to challenge state and local policies seen as favoring those immigrants over some citizens.
The administration views the state tuition programs as directly violating federal law and creating perverse incentives for illegal immigration by offering educational benefits to non-citizens unavailable to out-of-state Americans.
Half the country now has similar laws to California’s in-state tuition programs for undocumented students.
In June, after the administration sued, Texas ended its decades-old law, and Florida last year scrapped its law that allowed in-state tuition for high school graduates who weren’t in the country legally.
Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which fought to pass Colorado’s in-state tuition law in 2013, said “This is absolutely essential for immigrant students” and “It’s not these students’ fault that our immigration system is so broken. They deserve the opportunity, just like all of their peers, to access higher levels of education,” noting that so far, Colorado universities are not making any immediate changes to their policies.
The litigation campaign continues to expand, with the DOJ targeting additional states across multiple federal circuits even as some lower courts have rejected the administration’s arguments.