DOJ Sues Colorado Over In-State Tuition for Noncitizens

Colorado is the latest state targeted by the Department of Justice for its in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. The DOJ has sued 14 other states for allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, three of which quickly agreed to end those policies. One case was dismissed and another ended in a win for the DOJ in federal court.

Colorado passed a law in 2013 establishing that undocumented students could qualify for in-state tuition if they met certain residency requirements or had graduated from a high school in Colorado. In its filing, the DOJ argued that the state’s policy is unlawful because it extends lower tuition rates and state financial aid opportunities to undocumented students that are not available to out-of-state students who are U.S. citizens. It also claims the policy encourages illegal immigration.

“For three decades Congress has made clear that states cannot provide education benefits to illegal aliens unless those same benefits are available to all American citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a press release. “By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Colorado is violating federal law and subsidizing education for illegal aliens at the taxpayers’ expense. This Department will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to our Nation’s own citizens.”

The Denver Post reported that several Democratic Colorado politicians are lambasting the Trump administration for attacking the policy. Mike Johnston, one of the bill’s co-sponsors and now the mayor of Denver, said the legislation was the reason he entered politics in the first place, having spent years as a teacher and principal, where he saw undocumented students in tears because they couldn’t afford higher education in Colorado.

“There’s no way Colorado is going to go back to that time,” he said.