DOJ Takes On 12 States Over Illegal Immigrant Tuition

Neoclassical red-brick college building with white columns and cupola — Photo: Kristi Blokhin / Shutterstock

The Trump administration has now sued a dozen states, accusing them of giving illegal immigrants cheaper college tuition and financial aid that American citizens from other states cannot get.

Story Snapshot

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued 12 states over laws letting undocumented students pay in-state college tuition rates.
Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota and Illinois are among the states targeted so far.
Courts have split on the issue, with wins for the DOJ in Illinois and a loss in Minnesota.
The laws being challenged are common, not rare — one report says 22 states plus Washington, D.C. still offer this kind of tuition break.

DOJ Expands Its Legal Campaign

The Justice Department has sued 12 states over laws that let students without legal immigration status pay the same lower tuition rate as in-state residents. The latest targets were Massachusetts and Rhode Island, sued in federal court for offering these lower rates to residents without legal status while charging full price to American citizens from other states.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has led the push, which also hit Colorado, California, Minnesota and Illinois. The Department says these state laws break federal immigration law and the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says federal law wins when it conflicts with state law.

Colorado Case Sets the Tone

The Colorado lawsuit shows how the Department argues its case. The DOJ says Colorado is “placing illegal aliens over American citizens in clear defiance of Congress’s commands”. The state’s law, known as ASSET, has let students living in the country illegally pay in-state tuition for more than a decade. The complaint claims the policy pushes more people to enter the country illegally and directly clashes with federal law.

More than 6,000 illegal immigrants benefit from Colorado’s policy, according to reporting on the case. That number helps explain why the fight is happening state by state — each law covers thousands of students and millions of dollars in tuition discounts.

Mixed Results in Court So Far

The legal battle has not gone one way. A federal judge in Illinois sided with the DOJ, striking down key parts of that state’s DREAM Act along with its tuition and scholarship rules for undocumented students. That ruling counted as a win for the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

Minnesota went the other way. A federal judge there dismissed the government’s challenge to the state’s tuition law entirely. The split rulings mean this fight is far from settled and will likely keep bouncing through different courts before any final answer emerges.

A Widespread Policy, Not an Outlier

These tuition laws are common across the country, not a fringe policy. One report says 25 states plus Washington, D.C. once allowed in-state tuition for undocumented students, a number that has since dropped to 22 plus D.C. after recent lawsuits and policy changes. That means the DOJ is not going after one rogue state — it is targeting a policy type used widely for years.

States defend these laws differently than the federal government frames them. Officials in these states argue the tuition rate is based on residency and school attendance, not immigration status, making it an education policy rather than an immigration benefit. The DOJ rejects that framing, saying the effect is the same no matter what states call it.

Why This Fight Matters to Voters

For many conservative voters, these lawsuits confirm a long-standing complaint: that state governments reward people who broke immigration law while American citizens pay more for the same education. For voters worried about fairness and government accountability, the case also raises a bigger question — why some states created these benefits in the first place, and whether taxpayers were properly consulted.

Liberal critics see these lawsuits differently, framing them as an attack on students who often grew up in the United States and know no other home. Either way, the outcome will decide tuition costs for thousands of students and test how far federal power reaches into state education policy.

DOJ Sues Colorado For Offering In-State Tuition Aid To Illegal Immigrants

The DOJ's 14th lawsuit challenging in-state tuition for illegal immigrants accuses Colorado of violating federal law — giving illegal aliens benefits denied to out-of-state American citizens. A Texas Dream… pic.twitter.com/slWoVfhPKA

— Colorado Free Press (@ColoFreePress) August 5, 2026

The Department of Justice has signaled it plans to keep filing these suits, with a spokesperson stating the agency “will not tolerate American students being” placed at a disadvantage. More states should expect similar legal challenges as the administration continues its campaign into 2026.