(The Center Square) – Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the latest states to be sued by the Department of Justice in a national effort by the Trump administration to challenge state laws that allow in-state tuition and taxpayer-funded financial aid to “illegal aliens.”
The DOJ’s Civil Division filed complaints against Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Monday challenging their respective laws. The DOJ argues the states’ laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who aren’t given the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships. The states’ laws also create incentives for illegal immigration and reward illegal foreign nationals with taxpayer funded benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, which conflicts with federal law, the lawsuits allege.
The DOJ has now filed 12 lawsuits challenging state laws related to in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal foreign nationals.
The lawsuits all allege state laws that “extend eligibility for in-state tuition benefits, financial aid, and scholarships at state colleges to illegal aliens, while requiring payment of higher tuition rates by and denying similar benefits to U.S. citizens from other states … is blatant unequal treatment favoring illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states. Worse, such preferential treatment is squarely prohibited and preempted by Congress.”
The lawsuits point to federal immigration law, which mandates that “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State . . . for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit . . . without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
“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,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “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 complaints seek to enjoin enforcement of state laws that require colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates for foreign nationals who are illegally living in their states. It also seeks to enjoin the states from enforcing state laws that offer financial assistance and scholarships to illegal aliens.
“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 with the DOJ’s Civil Division said. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
The DOJ’s lawsuits against Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Nebraska have already been ruled on and are being enforced. In these cases, judges ordered permanent injunctions and declared these state laws unconstitutional.
Last June, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor from the Northern District of Texas Wichita Falls Division in a three-paragraph ruling – issued just hours after the lawsuit was filed – granted the federal government’s motion and declared sections of the state law in question illegal, The Center Square reported.
In response, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “In-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas has ended. Texas is permanently enjoined from providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.”
However, the law is still on the books, and conservatives argue it must be repealed in the next legislative session.
Last October, Texas adopted new rules to prohibit higher education institutions in Texas from providing in-state tuition rates to students who are in the country illegally, The Center Square reported. This applies to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students.
Multiple immigration groups objected to the change, including those representing DACA students. The Fifth Circuit has ruled more than once that the DACA program created by former President Barack Obama is illegal. DACA remains illegal with a nationwide injunction in place, according to the Fifth Circuit.
Similar DOJ lawsuits filed in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey and Kansas are pending.