Seventeen States Now Face DOJ Suits Over Immigrant Tuition

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New York, Connecticut and Vermont over laws that let immigrants without permanent legal status pay in-state tuition at public colleges, bringing the number of states targeted to 17.

The lawsuits follow an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April 2025 directing the attorney general to block state policies seen as favoring noncitizens over American citizens.

Courts have already struck down tuition laws in Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Illinois, and every one of those states except Illinois sided with the federal government rather than defend its own statute.

At least 20 states and Washington, D.C. currently offer in-state rates to undocumented students, and roughly 525,000 such students are enrolled in American colleges and universities.

Advocates call the campaign unmatched in scale, noting the policies simply let students who attended and graduated from high school in a state pay the same rate as their classmates.

Cases remain pending in California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia, leaving tuition equity across much of the country in the hands of federal judges.

Courts have struck down five of these tuition laws, and four of those states folded rather than defend them. Only Illinois fought and lost; Minnesota fought and won this spring, and the Justice Department has since appealed, leaving both sides claiming momentum, Inside Higher Ed reports. Who pays full freight for public college is what the rulings decide: roughly 525,000 undocumented students are enrolled nationwide, and at least 20 states plus Washington let qualifying students pay resident rates. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton refused to defend the 2001 statute, and the National Immigration Law Center’s Efrén Olivares says thousands of students are now kept out by exorbitant tuition, Missouri Independent finds. The Minnesota appeal lands next.