4 New DOJ Lawsuits Over Tuition for Undocumented Students

The Department of Justice on Thursday policies challenged that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition in four more states: Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The agency has now sued 21 states for allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. 

In a news release, the agency said that by granting in-state tuition rates to undocumented students, states unfairly disadvantage U.S. citizen students from other states and incentivize unauthorized immigration. Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the practice results in U.S. citizen students “being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.” 

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund plans to intervene in the four new lawsuits, according to a statement from Thomas A. Saenz, who serves as the organization’s president and general counsel. He said the latest cases are a demonstration of “the Trump administration’s misuse of the court system to continue a concerted campaign of hostility toward all immigrants.” 

Before the Trump administration began its push to end these policies, undocumented students had been eligible for in-state tuition in roughly half of states. Now, DOJ lawsuits have successfully ended in-state tuition for undocumented students in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Illinois. Lawsuits are pending in Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

Advocates have scrambled to support undocumented students in states where their in-state tuition eligibility has been revoked or is in jeopardy. 

Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, which provides scholarships to undocumented students, said in a statement that the lawsuits are “part of a coordinated assault on Dreamers’ educational opportunity, stability and safety with harms that extend well beyond Dreamers themselves.”

Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said in a statement that the 21 lawsuits threaten higher education access for hundreds of thousands of students. 

“Shutting the door to higher education wastes talent, weakens local economies, and deprives communities of needed graduates,” Feldblum said. “Undermining these state-level policies creates uncertainty for institutions, disrupts their educational missions, and weakens states’ ability to meet their workforce and economic needs.”