The Justice Department has secured court victories in six states forcing them to end in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants and their children, according to Breitbart News, while lawsuits against 15 additional states remain unresolved.
The most recent win came in Kansas. That decision followed similar outcomes in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois, bringing the total number of states compelled to abandon the tuition policies to six. The department lost one case in Minnesota, but that ruling is being appealed to the 8th Circuit.
The effort is part of a broader Trump administration initiative targeting state laws that allow undocumented immigrants to pay lower, subsidized tuition rates at public colleges and universities — rates that are typically available only to state residents.
A 21-State Legal Campaign
In August, the Justice Department announced it was taking 21 states to court over the practice. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. framed the litigation as a straightforward matter of federal law.
“Over 30 years ago, Congress made clear that States cannot put illegal aliens before our Nation’s own citizens,” Woodward said in a DOJ statement at the time. “By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona are pushing citizens to the side and ignoring federal law. No more. As of today, we have now sued 21 states who we allege were thwarting Congress’s clear prohibition on placing aliens over citizens. Our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to American citizens.”
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, who heads the department’s Civil Division, echoed that position.
“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Shumate said. “This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”
The administration’s argument rests on a federal statute enacted more than three decades ago that bars states from offering resident tuition rates to undocumented immigrants unless the same benefit is extended to all U.S. citizens. According to Breitbart’s reporting, many states passed their tuition laws fully aware of the federal prohibition, betting that no presidential administration would challenge them.
Where the Cases Stand
Litigation is ongoing in Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. The Minnesota case is the sole loss the department has suffered so far, and its appeal to the 8th Circuit keeps that fight alive.
Despite the court orders and pending lawsuits, a substantial bloc of states continues to offer the discounted tuition rates. Those include Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — most of which are now named in the department’s litigation.
The six states that have already ended the practice did so under court order rather than through legislative action, a pattern that underscores how the policy fight has unfolded largely in the federal judiciary rather than in statehouses.
The cases raise questions that have divided courts and legal scholars for years: whether a state can extend residency-based tuition benefits to students who lack lawful immigration status, and whether Congress’s 1996 welfare reform law — which includes the tuition provision — preempts state policies that do so.
For the states still fighting, the stakes extend beyond tuition revenue. Public universities in several of the targeted states enroll significant numbers of undocumented students, many of whom were brought to the country as children and have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives. Ending in-state rates would sharply increase their costs, potentially pricing some out of higher education altogether.
Supporters of the tuition policies argue that educated residents strengthen state economies and that denying access to affordable college harms young people who had no say in their immigration status. The Justice Department’s position, by contrast, treats the tuition rates as an unlawful benefit that advantages non-citizens over citizens.
So far, the courts have largely sided with the federal government. With six wins, one loss under appeal, and 15 cases pending, the administration’s campaign against the tuition policies is far from finished — and the remaining states show no sign of backing down voluntarily.
The outcome of the pending cases, particularly any that reach the appellate courts, could determine whether the practice survives in the roughly ten states that still maintain it.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/09/10/trump-doj-forces-six-states-to-end-in-state-tuition-for-illegal-migrants-while-suing-15-more-states/