Federal Judge Ends In-State Tuition for Nebraska Noncitizens

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that undocumented students in Nebraska can no longer pay in-state tuition rates, a win for the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued the state over the issue in April, The Nebraska Examiner reported. At the time, state leaders sided with the DOJ in a joint consent decree.  

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Buescher quashes a two-decade-old state law that allowed noncitizens to pay in-state tuition if they lived in the state for at least three years and graduated from a Nebraska high school, among other criteria.

Buescher wrote in his 54-page opinion that permitting undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates while out-of-state citizens pay more “blatantly” violated federal law. He also concluded that two organizations that sought to intervene—True Potential, a scholarship provider for participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, and the Orel Alliance, which works with Ukrainian immigrants and refugees—didn’t have standing to do so.

Nebraska is the latest state to topple in a series of lawsuits filed by the DOJ targeting in-state tuition benefits for undocumented students.

Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky declined to defend their state laws, like Nebraska, though undocumented students and their advocates have attempted to intervene. Other states, like California, Illinois and Virginia, have yet to fold. Minnesota won its case in March when a federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s suit against the state.