DOJ Sues 4 States Over In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday filed lawsuits against four states to challenge state laws that allow in-state tuition and financial assistance for illegal immigrants.

Complaints were filed against laws in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington state that the DOJ said “unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates or scholarships.”

The laws also create incentives for foreign nationals to try and illegally come to the United States, while they reward illegal immigrants with benefits that are unfairly not available to American citizens, the DOJ said in a statement.

The complaint filed against Oregon said that “illegal aliens present in the United States are not eligible for postsecondary education benefits based on state residency unless those same benefits are also offered to all American citizens, regardless of their state of residence.”

Several executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his second term also must “not confer greater benefits to illegal aliens present in our Nation than to U.S. citizens,” it said, noting that multiple provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act stipulate there should be limited access to “certain public benefits intended for U.S. citizens.”

“Oregon law rewards an illegal alien present in our Nation with eligibility for in-state tuition, based on residency within Oregon, while explicitly denying eligibility for resident tuition rates to U.S. citizens who are not Oregon residents,” the complaint stated, noting that tuition rates for in-state residents are significantly lower than the rates for non-residents.

In a Thursday statement, Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr., said the Trump administration will continue to target state laws or other situations where illegal immigrants are receiving benefits that are “denied to American citizens.”

In Arizona, the DOJ cited an investigative report that estimated approximately 3,600 illegal immigrants each year could qualify for in-state tuition under state law, the news release said. In the fall 2025 semester, around 720 illegal immigrants got in-state tuition, with a difference of roughly $24,000 between in-resident and out-of-state rates, the department said.

The complaints filed against Washington state and New Mexico cited similar alleged violations, arguing that state laws reward illegal immigrants living in those respective states with in-state tuition rates over American citizens who live out-of-state.

So far, the DOJ has filed lawsuits against similar laws in Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, it said.

Five lawsuits that were filed in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois generated “favorable results” for the DOJ that permanently enjoined those states from giving reduced tuition rates to illegal aliens, according to the department news release. The lawsuits in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont were filed earlier in August.

In March, a federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit against the Minnesota tuition law, writing that a federal law cited by the Trump administration in its complaint does not pre-empt state laws around tuition.

“Under Minnesota’s statutory scheme, nonresidents can—and do—qualify for resident tuition: by living in a neighboring state and attending Minnesota high schools, attending a Minnesota boarding school, or attending and graduating from a Minnesota high school before moving out of state,” U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote.

“So even if the Resident Tuition Statute contained a de facto residency requirement, ‘a citizen or national’ is eligible for Resident Tuition without regard to that individual’s residence.”

The governors’ offices in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington state did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.