Education Department Probes 5 Universities Accused of Excluding US-Born Students From Scholarships

The Department of Education’s civil rights office has opened investigations into five universities over scholarships alleged to exclude U.S.-born students, in the latest move by the Trump administration to scrutinize higher education programs on grounds of civil rights and national security.

The probes, announced in a July 23 statement, target the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska–Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University, following complaints submitted to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over scholarships that allegedly discriminate against U.S.-born individuals while favoring illegal immigrants.

“The investigations will determine whether these universities are granting scholarships only for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or ‘undocumented’ students,” the department said.

Such actions would violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s Title VI “prohibition against national origin discrimination,” it said.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor described the investigations as part of President Donald Trump’s broader “America First” agenda.

“Neither the Trump administration’s America First policies nor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 permit universities to deny our fellow citizens the opportunity to compete for scholarships because they were born in the United States,” Trainor said in a statement.

The complaints were filed by the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Equal Protection Project, which has challenged similar scholarship programs at other universities. William Jacobson, the group’s founder, called the probes a welcome step toward ending “discrimination against American-born students.”

Programs cited in the complaints include Louisville’s Sagar Patagundi Scholarship, Nebraska Omaha’s Dreamer’s Pathway Scholarship, Miami’s U Dreamers Program, Michigan’s Dreamer Scholarship, and Western Michigan’s Undocumented/DACA Scholarship “for undergraduate students who are ineligible to receive federal student aid due to an undocumented or DACA status.”

The Education Department also said OCR would review other scholarships at schools that appear to exclude applicants based on race or color, such as aid reserved for Hispanic, African American, or “undergraduate LGBTQ+ students of color.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the universities named in the scholarship probe for comment.

On the same day the Education Department announced the scholarship investigations, the State Department revealed a separate probe into Harvard University’s participation in the federal Exchange Visitor Program, which oversees J‑1 visas for foreign scholars and students.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the review would assess Harvard’s compliance with federal regulations and whether its activities align with U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.

Trump signed a proclamation in June suspending international visas for new students at Harvard, citing the need to enhance national security amid concerns that U.S. adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party are exploiting the visa program for “improper purposes,” including by using visiting students to collect information at elite U.S. universities.

The investigations come amid a wider federal campaign targeting identity-based programs and undisclosed foreign funding at U.S. colleges. Earlier this month, the Department of Education launched a separate probe into the University of Michigan over late and incomplete disclosures of roughly $86 million in foreign funding, much of it allegedly linked to Chinese institutions with military ties.

The Department of Justice is also investigating the University of California system’s diversity hiring plans.

George Mason University in Virginia faces two separate Title VI probes over alleged discrimination in hiring and treatment of Jewish students.

Both moves reflect Trump’s executive orders barring federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that he says violate civil rights law and undermine “national unity.”

“In case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing,” one of Trump’s executive orders reads.